Dangerous Choice
by Angelan
Summary: New characters, old Erasers. Nathan is a normal kid, who, since birth has been able to see the future. One day he forsees the death of a girl on train tracks close to his home and saves her. Then his life is turned upside down. T mild violence, Romance
1. Prologue

This story is based on the work Maximum Ride by James Patterson. The consept of Erasers belongs to James Patterson and do not belong to me.

All other characters adn the story itself is my own work

Please do not copy or save this work without my permission.

Thankyou and Enjoy

__

_**Dangerous Choice**_

_**Prologue**_

_A feather, floating down through the darkness, pure white, directly contrasting the darkness, the shades of black versus the tint of white standing out from each other, the black dark, the white bright to the eyes. The feather comes in contact with something solid. Ripples of color emanate outwards from the point of the feathers touch with the surface._

_Suddenly the world comes into existence; on a path, one that is familiar, yet can't quite be remembered. It was the old path that ran right next to the railway tracks of town. The world is quiet; all signs of civilization faded into the background leaving a feeling of isolation floating on the air. The sound of an approaching train breaks the isolation, the ground rumbles slightly underfoot. A motionless form lies on the tracks, a person, by the structure of the form. The tracks were lined with steep inclines, gorse bushes growing down them. A sharp pain breaks the feeling on unreality as the gorse bushes scratch and trip. Closer to the form, it is indeed a person, badly injured and unconscious._

_The ground is rumbling noticeably now, the train coming closer, hearing the sounds of the wheels grinding against the rails. The person is a girl, blonde hair, matted with blood from a concussion on her head. Her arms and legs are scratched and she appears to have slash marks from a wild animal, although none are in the area. The sound of the oncoming train is now deafening, the ground rumbling so much the stones littering it were being rattled around, the vibrations moving them along the ground. A whistle pierces the air, shrill and loud, the train bears down on the girl, not able to slow down, not seeing the form on the rails, as it continues to bear down, coming closer and closer. A figure appears up on the path, looking down in horror at the scene folding out below, at the impending doom of the girl on the rails. He flings himself off the path, down the incline, attempting to save the girl before the trains arrives, the figure…_

I awoke, laying in my own cold sweat from the nightmare I had witnessed. I looked at my clock, it was six thirty in the morning and I had school that day. I couldn't get back to sleep and so I got up and went to the bathroom off my bedroom. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My dirty blond colored hair defied the laws of gravity by sticking up at all angles instead of the mop like state it is normally in. I was pretty average, about five feet nine with dirty blond hair, normal physique of someone who liked to stay fit, but wasn't interested inbeing a sports jock. The only thing that made me unique from everyone was my eyes. They were a natural pale violet color, although they occasionally changed to a startling blue. At times it couldn't decide what color it wanted to be, other times, it refused to change, but most commonly they were seen by most people as blue eyes. Only my family and my friends had ever seen my natural eye color, and even then it was a rare occurrence.

Bag hung under my eyes, not very noticeable, but there. For the past few days, I had been having the same dream over and over, yet still hadn't figured out what it meant. The figure, jumping off the incline was me. I shook my head to rid my head of those thoughts but it was fruitless. I could never fully get my head away from that dream, something about the girl…, something unique. I splashed cold water on my face to fully wake me up and had a shower to wash away the sweat that had covered me in my sleep. Once I was finished, I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that said, 'life sucks, but so does a vacuum cleaner, get used to it' and casually threw a jacket over top of the shirt. If the teachers gave me hassle about the shirt, which they would, the strict old nobodies, I had another thing for them; the back said 'bite me'.

Yes I know the chapters are short, but it is the way I write my chapters that it is because of this.


	2. Chapter 1 & 2

**_Chapter 1_**

My name, for those who don't know me, is Nathaniel "Darkness" Corway, The darkness thing I'll explain later, you're not ready for it yet. People called me Nathan. They learned never to call me Nate. I hate that name, and with a vengeance. Anyway, the first rule in my household, the first up in the morning, makes breakfast for everyone. So guess what? I was the cook. It never surprised me that as soon as people smelt the famous smell of breakfast cooking, that it pulls them out of sleep and drags them downstairs to sit them at the table in a zombie like state. I had learnt to cook the hard way. My mother was always busy with her work and my father had passed away three years ago, so I was the oldest at seventeen and was the one to look after everyone else. Guess what, with great responsibility, come great power, and I control my family with that power. It was so amusing to see my family get up in the morning to find I had burnt all of breakfast that day. They were faced with smoldering piles of burnt charcoal. But over time, by skill shad improved and I could cook quite well, having some offers to work at restaurants with my skills. But I turned them down. My family needed me more, and my mom provided enough income for the entire family.

There was my little sister, Danielle, who was fifteen and had long golden-brown hair that was like our mothers, but she had dad's eyes, the piercing ocean green eyes that always stared at you until you give up and admit something. She was very good at making people confess to crimes. Then there was my younger brother, Jake. At the age of thirteen, he was still taller than his sister, but came up shorter than I did by at least a full heads length. He was one of those kids who like to go around pulling stunts, being the dare-devil of the neighborhood, he had a reputation to uphold on his crazy antics, and normally came home once a month with a broken bone or two. People said he was really brave, I say he's either that, or very moronic, but hey, he is my little brother, what are slaves for? I mean family for? See what I mean, with the responsibility, comes power, but be warned, power corrupts. I know that for a fact. I am still fighting those urges for total household control, and winning. See unlike most people, I don't want the power, I was given it with no instruction manual and had to learn to drive it the hard way, with mighty crashes and major accidents.

"So what's for breakfast?" Jake asked me, "Not charcoal I hope."

"Ha, ha, very funny Jake," I replied sarcastically, "You don't want rat poison in your food do you? Because you know, that can easily be arranged."

I smiled at Jake's reaction, it was so amusing each time he tried to insult me with that horrendous past time. But it was even more amusing, because he knew I held total control of the food and that it probably could be arranged. Heavy clomping footsteps came down the stairs as the second zombie awoke from its slumber.

"My god," Jake gasped, "what it that repulsive thing?"

"Shut up Jake," Danielle replied, throwing a slipper at his head, "Only because you looked in the mirror every morning."

Danielle crashed on the table and immediately rested her head in her arms and fell back asleep again. Another thing I should have mentioned about Danielle, she isn't a morning person. About the only way to wake her up fully in the morning was to throw her in a lake that had recently been frozen the night before until you broke the ice with her. Another way I held control of my family, I could easily re-create the same situation as the lake, in the bath tub. It's called fill with water, then add ice cubes.

_**Chapter 2**_

After breakfast I had finally gotten everyone ready for school. Danielle kept Jake and me waiting for half an hour before she was ready. Thankfully I get up early enough to make sure we are at school on time. I honestly don't know what I would have happened to those two if I wasn't around. I kicked them out the door and walked out myself, slinging my bag up onto my back and locked the house up. Our Mother was never around when we got and hardly ever home before we went to bed, and trust me that's late. I have an average bedtime of around midnight to two o'clock in the morning.

"Nathan?" Jake asked me suddenly, "Can you drop me off at school on your motorbike?"

"I was going to walk," I replied, "Like a normally do. Why do you need a ride, you catch the bus everyday to school?"

"It's because he wants to impress a girl," Danielle said, "Am I right Jake? OR was it the fact that you asked a girl out, she turned you down, like any sensible girl, and now you want to show up on Nathan's bike to impress her?"

"Yeah, that right," Jake replied sharply, "It's better than asking Nathan to drive you to school so you can impress the guy you have a crush on."

"Alright, shut up!" I shouted sharply, "I said no-one is using my motorbike today. Jake you can catch the bus, Danielle and I will walk to school. It won't hurt us. Danielle, you don't want to grow unattractive to you?"

That got a small look of horror on Danielle's face and a small laugh out of Jake.

"And you idiot brain," I said turning to Jake, "You better keep up your reputation of a dare-devil; you don't want to become another fade out stunt man do you?"

That left them quiet while we walked to school. Jake had to catch the bus because he still went in intermediate school, which happened to be half way across the neighborhood. Danielle and I went to the same high school which was about ten minutes walking from our place, if you took the old shortcut along the path by the train tracks. An image of the dream from last night flashed through my mind but I pushed it aside. Now wasn't the time. I dropped Jake off at the bus stop and continued on my way to school, Danielle walking along with me.

We walked in silence along the path next to the railroads towards school. I looked closely around the place, seeing if there was anything that might help me with my dream. Then I realized the rails were on the wrong side. They were on my right. In my dream they were always on my left, coming home from school.

"Is something on your mind?" Danielle asked, and I realized I had fallen behind.

"No," I replied, "Nothing much. Just about a dream I had. It's nothing."

"What was the dream about?" Danielle asked.

"So who's this guy you have a crush on?" I asked changing the subject deliberately and, as usual, she took the bait, just as I hoped.

"I'm not going to tell you," Danielle said, blushing profusely, "No-one knows who it is, and I won't tell anyone."

We walked last the few minutes in silence until we reached the school. People were lounging around on the grass and footpaths outside the main building as per usual before school starts. This was the part of the day I hated about school. It seemed that I was popular at school with the girls for some reason. More specifically a small group of about eight or nine girls. But that wasn't the worst of it, oh no the worst of it was…

"Nathan!" A voice shouted. A voice I knew well and wished I didn't, "Over here!"


	3. Chapter 3 & 4

_**Chapter 3**_

I had a scowl on my face, but as I turned around to face the voice I hid it behind a mask of impassiveness, making sure people couldn't see my emotions. The owner of the voice was a short, brown-haired girl who considered herself my girlfriend, although I don't know where she got that idea from. I never agreed to it, I probably never would have. Her name was Stellar; she was not the type of person I was interested in. She spent more time in front of the mirror each morning than Danielle, talked non-stop about how she looked and the clothing she wore. Was always shopping for the most recent fashion of clothing, whether it was artificial or natural, natural meaning it was once alive, and she was always the centre of attention, The only attribute about her that I didn't mind was her cunning, otherwise how would she have been able to stalk me?

"Nathan, over here!" she called again. "Why didn't you call me at all during summer break? I am your girlfriend after all."

"How many times have I told you Stellar," I replied, "That I am not your boyfriend. You decided to stalk me up and make me your boyfriend. I never agreed to it."

"Oh, come now," Stellar replied, "I thought you would have gotten over the shyness by now."

"Stellar," I said, losing my patience from lack of sleep, "I have told you once and I will not tell you again, I am not your boyfriend. I would never be interested in you. You are self-centered and delusional. You care more about how you look and what you are wearing than things happening in reality, you focus yourself as the centre of the universe with every person falling at your feet. I wonder how many children in some third world country starved while you spent your daddy's fortune buying those new clothes. It is people like you that make me sick. And the fact you are mentally unstable doesn't help. If you come near me again, I will file a restraining order. I am not your boyfriend!"

"There is another girl, isn't there?" Stellar asked, not registering what I had just said. I said she was cunning, I never said her brain functioned properly.

"No Stellar," I replied, "there isn't. I'm not your boyfriend and that's final."

I walked away from her and the rest of the people standing and staring at the two of us outside the building and walked inside. No sooner than I had walked inside than the full impact sunk in. I wish I could tell you my life was simple and quiet, but that's not the case. As I told you before, there was a small group of girls that had fallen for my charms. As soon as the door closed, chaos ensued. The girls just figured I was single again. I sighed; life was never peaceful around me. I don't have any clue, but those girls seemed to be attracted to me. Probably because every girl that had asked me out I turned down and I had proved that I was not the other way inclined either, so they wanted what they couldn't have I suppose.

I ran around the corner and pulled my jacket off and reversed it inside out. I learnt that trick from the movie 'The Recruit'. I pulled the reversible jacket back on, but with the other side showing and grabbed a hat off of the guy at his locker next to me and pulled it over my heard.

"Hey!" He said surprised, "that's my hat!"

I signaled him to be quiet as the group of girls came running around the corner. All of them were looking excited. Man I think I'm in a school of stalkers. It's unnatural how they seemed to chase me. I swear I'm cursed.

"Did you see which way Nathan went?" One girl asked us.

I pointed down the corridor that was ahead of me to the right. The girls ran down the corridor and soon disappeared. It was safe to now stop hiding. I pulled the cap off and gave it back to the guy and turned my jacket back.

"Thanks for the hat man," I said, "You saved my life. What is it with girls and what they can't have?"

"You're Nathan?" The guy asked.

"The one and only," I replied, "You're new here aren't you? The chicks here are crazy. Watch yourself ok."

I walked off as the first bell for school rang. We had an assembly first thing to welcome the new students to the school and for the principal to lay down the ground rules for them. I already knew the first one he would tell them, the forest on the edges of the school ground were out of bounds. He would tell them the ghost story he tells every new batch of students. I had to smile at the looks they might have on their faces. The Principal was known for exaggerating the story. But this year the story was different. This year, a child had died, from a pack of wild wolves in the forest…

_**Chapter 4**_

"That's good, Nathan," his art teacher told him, "The sketch is well drawn and well proportioned. The shading is excellent, but it's missing something. It's missing the personal touch, what inspired you to draw it? Without that it is not art, but a useless picture."

I tore off the picture from my sketching pad and held it up in front of my face. Then I lifted my fathers lighter out of my pocket and lit it, burning the picture in front of my eyes. The kids weren't surprised, neither was the teacher. I was known to do that if something wasn't right about the picture. I burnt it to destroy the imperfect artwork. This time it was the picture of the train from my dream.

Once the drawing had been burnt and the ashes swept away. I pulled out my pad and stared at it wondering what to draw. I had no idea what to draw. I took art at school because it was my talent. I was good at pencil sketches. It was what I specialized at in art. Art was the class I enjoyed the most. It allowed me to express myself and all the emotions inside me. It was also the only class that allowed me to burn my work. It was intriguing to watch the paper blacken and burn, to watch the picture fade. It was a failure I had to remove from my life.

"That's better, Nathan," The teacher said, coming around to me again.

I hadn't realized I had started drawing again. I looked at the clock and realized about ten minutes had passed. I looked down at the picture on my sketching pad and my eyes widened. The picture was of the girl from my dream, laying on the train tracks, unconscious, oblivious to her impending death. The line were fine, the shadowing perfect. The picture seemed to be so real, a black and white portrait of the girl I had envisioned. Then I noticed the small words in the corner of the picture, the ones the teacher could not see. I stared at them, for all they said was hurry, before time runs out.

"What inspired you to draw this?" The teacher asked me, "Nathan? What inspired you to draw such a majestic drawing? Perhaps it was love? For this girl?"

"It was a dream," I whispered back to him, "A dream I had last night."

Just then the bell went to signal the end of class. I got up from off my seat and folded the cover of my sketching pad back and placed it in my bag, then walked out of the class. I didn't want to go home, not yet so I walked to the district library which was just down the road, to continue reading a book for English class. But my mind kept returning to that drawing, the picture of the girl.I gave up trying to read his book and pulled out the picture of the drawing. I studied it, examining the lines, the pencil strokes. They were all single, sure of themselves. No marks showed on the paper where an eraser would be used. The entire picture had been drawn sharp and accurate, no signs of hesitation, no signs of mistakes. He examined the girls face; she was no older than he was, seventeen and extremely attractive.

_She's only a dream figment,_ I told myself, _she doesn't exist._

"I was right," Stellar's voice sounded from behind me, "There is another girl. That's her, isn't it?"

"No Stellar," I replied, "there is no other girl. This picture is from a nightmare I had last night. Now what do you want and please don't say to get together again. The answer will still be no."

"I can forgive you for your outburst this morning," Stellar replied, "If you take me to the movies tonight."

"Forget it," I replied, "When will it be drilled through your thick head, I'm not interested. Now if you come near me again to ask me something like that, I'll order the police to put a restraining order on you."

I placed the picture in my bag and walked out of the library, leaving Stellar in the library with a stunned look on her face. The sun was still up, but it was getting late and the sun was near the horizon. I walked passed the school and down the path next to the train tracks, lost in thought. It was the low rumble of the oncoming train and the faint whistle from the engine that drew my attention to the tracks, and lying there, like in my dream, was the girl…


	4. Chapter 5 & 6

_**Chapter 5**_

Long blond hair, white shirt and pants, white sneakers and a white coat covered here. The white stained by red, blood from her wounds. I stood in shock, realizing my dream was coming true. It was the increasing rumble and the loud shrill blast of the train whistle now close that bought me back to my senses and that was when I noticed the large wolf down on the tracks approaching the girl. I leapt down the incline without a second thought in my mind, grabbing a rusted Iron rod that lay in the gorse, cutting my hand as I did so. The wolf heard me coming and turned to snarl at me. I saw the blood on one of its paws and realized it had attacked the girl; her wounds were claw marks from this beast. I didn't have time to fight this animal, the train was coming, and I need to help her, not fight. But the wolf leapt at me, solving the problem. I lifted the rusted Iron bar at the wolf's leap and pointed it at the incoming body. The wolf realized his mistake but too late and he landed on the rusted point of the bar, the tip sliding into his ribs and finding his heart, killing him almost instantly, but before he died, I could have sworn he talked.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," The wolf said in proper English, a sound not meant to come from an animal throat and was full of a growling noise, justbefore he died.

I didn't believe it, but I had no time to ponder the dying words of a wolf. I raced down onto the tracks to see the train racing along, bearing down on me and the girl. I acted swiftly, moving to the girls side, and quickly checked to make sure she wasn't severely hurt and shouldn't be moved. Once I was sure, I lifted her limp form in my arms and moved quickly off the tracks, just as the train flew past us, a strong wind whipped up by the movement of the carriages, and on this wind, I noticed the feathers, snowy white and tawny brown feathers that were too large for a bird, slowly drift on the strong breeze, fallen from the coat that covered the girl.

The train passed and I was able to walk along the tracks a bit until I found the section of the incline that kids were known to use to get down to the tracks. I climbed up the rough dirt track that they had formed, holding the girl in my arms. Once I reached the path I continued home and was surprised to see the house still standing even though it was so late, the sun almost set beyond the horizon. Leaving Danielle and Jake home alone was not the brightest decision to make; they would have normally waged war against each other. I walked in the door to find they were nowhere in sight and the house was quiet. I snuck up to my room and placed the girl down on my bed, looking at the slash marks on her arms and the bite mark on her leg. I went down to the kitchen to find Danielle and Jake eating a microwavable dinner, in silence. They looked up as I walked into the room.

"Why so silent?" I asked as I got the first aid kit out of the cupboard.

"We saw one of those wolves," Danielle said, "On the way home I saw one of those wolves. Jake said he saw one when he was dropped off, it was hiding in the bushes at the park nearby. What's with the blood on your shirt?"

"Lock the house, doors and all the windows," I ordered immediately, not answering the question, "Make sure they are all locked. I don't want one of them getting in. They aren't normal wolves."

"How do you know?" Jake asked quietly, "you didn't see one."

"No," I replied sarcastically, "I didn't just see one. Whose blood do you think is on my shirt? I impaled one on a rusty Iron pole down by the rail road track. It tried to attack me. It attacked her…"

"Who?" Danielle asked, "It attacked who?"

"It attacked me," A voice said, coming from the doorway, "I heard you talking about them. You killed one? They'll come looking for you, they're looking for me. They won't stop until I'm caught or until I'm dead. But I need to know, can I trust you?"

_**Chapter 6**_

"Well, I just jumped down an incline," I replied, "cut my had on a gorse bush, impaled one of those wolves on a rusted iron pole and jumped in front of an oncoming train to save you. Does that count?"

"You are insane," Jake muttered to me. I playfully cuffed him over the head.

"I found you on the railway tracks," I continued, "you were unconscious, there was a train coming and one of those wolfs things were about to pounce on you. If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?"

The girl was quiet and I was able to take a glimpse of her eyes, they were a dazzling blue color, the blue of sapphires, but they also held the gaze of someone who has seen too much for their age.

"I am nobody," She replied. I could hear the sadness and loss in her voice, "I used to have a name, but it wasn't mine. I was just a replacement for the real person, incase they failed. The only reason why they hunt me is to keep their secret. I'm different from other people. I'm thankful that you saved me, but I was better off dead."

"How different are you?" I asked, "Unlike most people I was born with a genetic mutation. Blue is not my natural eye color."

"Then what is?" The girl asked, skillfully avoiding the question.

I closed my eyes, letting myself relax and then opened them again to reveal the pale violet color they normally are. Images flashed through my vision so I had to close my eyes to stop the flow.

"My eyes are the only physical way of telling my mutation," I continued, "But I have been able to, since birth, see things before they happened. Although it has been dormant for about three years, it started again when I started seeing you on the tracks."

"That's nothing compared to how unique I am," The girl replied, a ghost of a smile on her lips, "I thought it was cool at first. But since then, my opinion has changed. It's caused me nothing but pain and suffering. You see I'm not fully human."

"Wouldn't have something to do with this feather?" I asked, pulling one of the feathers I saw earlier out of my pocket, "Would it?"

"Whoa, wait," Jake interrupted, "What is going on here? Nathan you saved this girls life, even though you don't know who she is, and now she's telling you she's not quite human. For all we know she could be some nutcase who escaped from a mental institute."

"I'm a DNA recombinant, you jerk!" She shouted at Jake.

"What the…?" Jake replied stupidly

"It's someone whose DNA has been mixed with another animals DNA," Danielle replied, "You'll have to excuse our brother; he's a little low on IQ points. But what do you mean you are a DNA recombinant? Human experimentation is illegal. How can you be part of an experiment that should not, could not be taking place?"

"Simple," She replied, "Because people don't know it exists. Do you want proof? Because here is proof."

She pulled off her white coat, the torn sleeves, nothing but rags, and flung it on the floor. Then she revealed two large, snow white and tan brown wings that spanned from one wingtip to the other at least thirteen feet. They were beautiful and majestic, awing us, leaving us silent. This was too much for our brains to handle. Danielle actually fainted.


	5. Chapter 7 & 8

_**Authors Note: **People have been asking if I will be having Maximum Ride in my story. As of yet I am undecided about if I am going to stick her in, but have left a part of the storyline open incase I have decided by the time I have reached it, to include her. I do not commonly use other peoples characters as I feel uncomfortable using them and prefer to use my own unique characters. I will let you know that Laura was origionally based on Max II from SOF, but as a unique character for my own story. Max II was the bases from which I created Laura._

_Just letting you know._

_**Chapter 7**_

"Are they real?" Jake asked after staring at them in shock for about ten minutes, "Can I touch them?"

"Jake," I replied sharply, annoyed by his lack of manners, "See if you can revive your sister."

I sat down at the table, the disbelief showing on my face. I couldn't believe that people would be as sick and twisted as to experiment on humans, let alone teenage kids.

"How long?" I asked, my voice husky, "How long have you been like that, a… a…"

"A freak?" She asked, "I've been like this all my life. I was born with wings."

"I know they're real," I said, "I have a feather, it feels real. So I take it the wings are real. Who would do such a thing to people, to unborn children? I'm sorry this is so hard to believe, although I know you are telling the truth on some level, I need time to let my brain take it in."

"I understand," She said, "I can leave if you want me to."

"Stay," I replied, "It's not safe out there. Besides, you can't go nameless forever, choose a name. Mind if I take a look at those claw marks?"

"No," She replied, "Go ahead. I'm too tired to even resist any type of attack, let alone wince at my wound as someone cleans them."

So I set to work, to keep my mind busy, by cleaning her wounds and bandaging them. Making sure they were clean well and no infection had set in. Taking care of my daredevil brother had taught me well in the medical area of things. I also saw she had a bite mark on her shoulder, just above her wing. I moved to examine it and my hand brushed her feathers. They were as soft as silk, and were beautiful to behold. But when his hand brushed the feathers, she moved away from his hand so that it wasn't in contact with her wing. I cleaned the bite mark, careful not to brush her wing again. By the time I was finished, Danielle had been roused by Jake pouring ice water on her face and was cooking us some not so great food, but it was edible.

We sat down to eat at the table. The girl was sitting there, looking at the food as if it might be poisoned. When she saw us digging into the food, she realized it wasn't poisoned and dug into it as if she hadn't had a meal in weeks.

"I don't knowwhat to call myself," the girl said, once we had cleared the dishes away, "I was thinking Laura. I like that name, so yeah, it'll be Laura."

"Well, Laura," I replied, "It looks like you haven't eaten in a long time."

"I haven't eaten in almost three days," She replied, "I need to eat more than an average human. My eating habits are out of whack because of the bird DNA."

I smiled at that. A girl with an appetite, not one of these stupid air headed girls that cared about how they looked all the time and were always dieting. A flash of an image raced through my mind and I realized I had dropped my guard. But the flash was all I required to see what was coming, and soon.

"Are all the doors and windows locked and bolted?" I asked suddenly, Danielle and Jake nodded; I then turned to Laura, "Tell me what you know about those wolf creatures, I need to know."

"They are the only other experiment that made it past infancy," She replied, "Part man part wolf; we call them Erasers, because when they finish with you, you will cease to exist in the public eye…"

_**Chapter 8**_

"What do you mean we will cease to exist, Laura?" I asked her, "Do they make us disappear?"

"You have two options once an Eraser is sent to hunt you," Laura replied, "The first is to be taken back to the place where you escaped from a lab or something like that, or the second option is to die, be killed by one of those monsters. But some of the other experiments found a third option and they have been on the run, outsmarting the Erasers, staying one step ahead of them to stay free."

"Gee, that's nice to know," Jake replied sarcastically, but fell silent at my stern gaze.

"Jake, pack some bags," I said, "Get spare clothing, food supplies and bottles of water. Life just got more interesting. Laura, what can you tell me of these Erasers? I need to know as much as you do. We don't have long to learn about them."

"I'll tell you what I know," Laura replied, "But first answer this, how do you know we don't have much time?"

"I could say this entire thing is one big dream I'm having," I replied, "And I know what's going on, but that's not the case. I said I could see things before they happen. You asked if you could trust me, so trust me."

Laura looked at me for a moment, searching my face for any lies before she said anything. After a moment of silence she finally answered my question.

"Do you remember the myth of the werewolf?" She asked, "Erasers a similar to them. They are humans that can transform into wolves, although Erasers can transform at will, they also don't have the weakness to silver. They are stronger and faster than normal people, even in their human from. When they are in their wolf forms they are even more deadly. Combine the strength, and hunting skills of a Wolf, with the cunning and intelligence of a human. An Eraser is what you get. But don't forget about a wolf's instinctand the fact that because of the combination, their senses are also heightened. That's all I know about Erasers. I don't tend to get up close and personal unless I have to. Their breath is rancid enough to knock you out."

"Right," I replied, "Make sure to not inhale Eraser breath, Gotcha!"

Laura smiled at that, but that was all. I could tell she was nervous about being around us, not sure who the next person to betray her was. She had no doubt been betrayed in the past. That's much I could sense about her. It was the way she acted around people, not willing to trust them, always keeping to herself.

"Alright, everything has been packed," Jake said, walking back into the room.

"Good," I replied, "Make sure they are light enough to run with. We'll need them sometime in the next two to three days."

"How come?" Danielle replied, "We'll be fine here, won't we?"

"I don't know how long it'll take the Erasers to find out who I am and where I live," I replied, "But once they pick up my scent at the train tracks near the dead body of their comrade, they'll most likely follow it here. Once they do that, we won't be safe here."

"Why not just turn her over?" Jake replied, "It's her they want. They'll leave us alone, won't they?"

"No," Laura said, "They won't. You've already seen my wings. That is one of the biggest secrets they are protecting, anybody who's seen that secret is either bought in to see if they can be experimented on, or they are eliminated."

"The best thing to do now," I replied, "is to get as much rest as you can. Laura, you need to let you wounds heal. It's been a long day and all of us need time to accept all that's happened recently."

I looked at the clock and realized it was just after nine at night. All of us needed to get some sleep. Especially if we would be on the run for a while from the Erasers.

"Laura you can sleep in my room tonight," I said, "I'll sleep in fathers study just down the hall."

"But Nathan," Danielle replied, "Nobody had been in there since dad died."

"I've been in there," I replied, "It's better to remember him, through all the pain of his loss, than to forget him altogether like mother would want us to. I'll stay there tonight. Take one of the bags each and be ready to leave if you have to."

They all nodded to say they understood what I had said then began to walk up the stairs to their rooms. I could tell how much this was weighing on them and begun to wonder if I made the right choice.

_Being able to see the future, doesn't mean you have the power to change it. Think about the consequences before you act._ My father words ran around in my head that night before I fell asleep. I had forgotten what he had told me until now. I had forgotten about the consequences.


	6. Chapter 9 & 10

_**Authors note: **Hey everyone. I have talked to a few friends who read my hand written story, as well as talked to some english experts I know at schoolfor their opinion on whether I should stick in Max. But I decided that I won't stick her in._

_I wanted to create original characters and story, but used ideas I got from Maximum Ride, to base my story on. Sorry if you really wanted her in. But I would greatly appreciated it if you continued reading and reviewing. Thanks everyone._

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 9**_

The next morning nothing happened. Nothing came busting doors down, or tried to kill us, which was a good thing I suppose. I decided it wouldn't be safe to leave Laura at home alone, but we couldn't take her to school, not with everyone else around. We chose to stay home. Our mother hadn't come home last night, one of the usual things she was known to do, on occasion, and that's stay at work the entire night.

I was already downstairs at six-thirty in the morning cooking breakfast for everyone. I was surprised to see Laura the first to be coming down the stairs. I was always caught off guard by her, no matter how many times I looked at her; she always caught my breath, to see the figure from my dream in reality. It was hard to get my head around the wings, I was convinced they were real; they felt real when I accidentally brushed them last night, but my brain just wouldn't register a human with wings. A teenage girl no less.

"You should be resting," I said, "After those wounds you received."

"I have to thank you," Laura replied, "For last night. I never did thank you for what you did, even though you probably gave up everything for me."

I was silent when she said that. I knew that I had probably stuffed up life for my entire family and myself. I didn't think about it and acted on what I felt was right.

"Don't worry about it," I replied, trying to lighten the mood, "Life was boring anyway. Now I get to have some excitement, even if it involves possible death."

"You didn't think about it," Laura replied, "Did you? You just acted on what you felt was right. I wish I could do that. But the way I was bought up, I learnt to think before I act, to use my head, ignore my emotions."

"My father always said to think of the consequences before you acted," I replied, "I guess I didn't in this case. I saw someone who was going to die and had to save their life. What can I say? It's a flaw of mine."

"Everyone has flaws," Laura replied, "I'm no different. As for my wounds though, I heal faster than normal, scratches and claw marks take up to twenty-four hours to heal, bullet wounds about a week. That's the extent of my wounds as far as I know."

I whistled upon hearing that, it was impressive, being able to heal that fast. Just then Jake came walking down the stairs and surprisingly fully dressed. A few minutes alter, Danielle followed, fully awake and dressed. It seemed that both didn't have much sleep last night.

"How much of the outside world do you know about?" I asked Laura to occupy the time, "Being bought up in a lab all your life and all."

"I learnt as I lived," Laura replied, "I know what I need to, to survive."

I could tell there was something that she wasn't telling us, but she was allowed some secrets to herself, after all who are we to ask her about her past? She'll tell us if she wants to. There came a knocking at the door and everyone tensed. We didn't expect any visitors today, so who would be calling around at this time? I inched closer to the kitchen window and peered out onto the front porch. Two guys stood on the doorstep dressed in police uniforms, except they didn't suite the uniforms, they looked like they would be comfortable modeling swim gear or something.

"Laura?" I whispered quietly, "How do you tell an Eraser apart from everyone else while they are in their human form?"

"They are easy to spot," She replied, "They look like male models, people suited to looking down a camera lens and modeling swim wear or something. As Far as I know there are no Female Erasers, something to do with the result was too aggressive."

"Alright," I said smiling, "Just make sure to stay out of sight, two of them are on our doorstep, dressed as cops. I'll take care of them, make sure you remain hidden."

I walked through the lounge to the front door, picking up my fathers .357 magnum that I had hid by the door, fully loaded incase things got out of hand. I pulled back the hammer and held it behind my back as I approached the door. I opened it a crack to see who it was outside although I already knew.

"Hello," One of them said in a sweet melodious voice, "We were wondering if you have seen a girl around your neighborhood recently? Here is a photo of what she looks like. She responds to the name Keira."

I took the photo in my free hand and pretended to examine it. I already knew it was a photo of Laura, there was no need to take the photo seriously.

"I haven't seen her around here," I replied after a moment of silence.

"You se," The second one said, "We are good at sniffing out lies, and that was one big one you told right there. Now give us the girl and no-one needs to be harmed."

"Over my dead inanimate corpse, Erasers," I replied bringing the gun up behind the door and firing it though the wood.

_**Chapter 10**_

The retort from the blast jerked my arm back, but the Eraser caught in the blast wasn't so lucky, blood spreading from a large bullet hole in his chest. The crack of the shot going off was deafening, temporarily stunning the second Eraser from the noise. I ran back into the kitchen and grabbed one of the backpacks.

"Out the back door," I ordered them, "Fast. I don't know if he has any friends in the area, but he won't be happy his partner is dead."

"There were only two?" Laura asked as she followed us to the rear entrance, "They always hunt in packs of at least four. If you took one down by the tracks, they would have gotten a replacement, then the one you shot on the porch. We still have two on the…"

Laura was cut short as the back door splintered into pieces and two wolves crashed into the house, shaking the wood chips off their fur and snarling at us. I raised the gun and fired, but the Eraser had already leapt at me, seeing the gun I held as a threat and almost collided with me, until I ducked under the flying creature and rolled into the next room, the others following. I pulled the pack I was lugging around a slung it at the second one that had come through the back door. He batted it away with his sharp, clawed paw and pounced at us again. I ducked under the fangs that were aiming for my throat and punched it in the gut, winding it and sending it sprawling of the lounge floor.

"The stairs," I shouted, "They have the entire ground floor covered. "We need to get to higher ground. From there we should be able to climb out through fathers study."

We climbed the stairs, the Erasers hot on our trail, but keeping their distance to avoid being shot. We reached the second floor and I raced along, following the others into the study. As soon as I had entered, Jake and Danielle closed the wooden doors and shoved the couch up against them to buy us a little time. A smash from the window had us reeling as another wolf jumped through the shattered glass and bared it's fangs at us. Before I could react it had pounced and knocked me on the ground, the gun skittering across the floor and under my father's desk. I smelled the putrid stench of the Eraser breath and my eyes began to water, but I bought my leg up under it and shoved with all my might and sent it flying into a wall with heaps of father's pictures on.

It landed on the floor and growled at me. I saw movement out the corner of my eye and rolled towards it as the wolf pounced again. I felt a sharp stinging pain as the wolf's claws dug into the flesh of my upper shoulder, creating three bright red lines across my kin that began to weep blood. But that didn't matter, I had seen Jake loading out fathers hunting shotgun and had lunged for it when the wolf pounced. Now it was in my hands and the wolf saw it, keeping its distance. I heard no other sounds except for the panting of the lone wolf in the room. We had forgotten about the others and lost track of them. I heard the soft whoosh sound of a compressed air weapon being fired and a sharp pain in my neck as a needle penetrated the skin. I pulled out the dart to find they had hit me with a tranquilizer. The others had snuck up behind us. The world grew blurry as I fell to my knees under the tranq. I saw the person who shot me approach and lean down to whisper in my ear.

"Why are you willing to protect her?" he asked softly, "She's not as innocent as she makes out she is. I doubt she even told you the truth. You threw away your life for nothing."

"Why didn't you kill him?" I heard a voice ask, the tone low and an underlying growl escaping with it as the wolf asked the question, "He killed my friend."

"Boss' orders" The guy replied, "'They wanted him and his siblings alive."

That was all I head of the conversation before the tranq finally sunk its fangs into my mind and sent me to the oblivious darkness of unconsciousness.


	7. Chapter 11 & 12

**_Author's note:_** _Thanks you to those who have stayed to continue readying. I love to hear your opinions on my story and any ways to improve it. I had one reviwer who mentioned that my characters, when they talk, are long winded and don't stick to the point. I have pondered this, but would like your feedback before I decided to change their talking styles, if I do._

_If I do change their alking styles it will be because of something that has happened in the story, that I will put in, to change them slightly as it would be difficult to re-write the entire story so far without everything being changed. Thanks and here are the next chapters._

**_Remember, I don't own Erasers. They are borrowed and Ishould try andreturn themto James Patterson in onepiece. But don't count on it._**

* * *

_**Chapter 11**_

Laura at in the small, two meter long by one meter wide metal cage, huddled up against the cold that crept all around her. The cage was barley one meter high and she was cramped. After the fight at the kid, Nathan's place, they had dragged the four of them back to her birth place at the lab they called Haven, when it was nothing near what the name implied.

Her wings ached from the falling she had down on them and the rough treatment she had received while the Erasers dragged her into the place and chucked her in the cage. The others had been placed in here for the first few hours, and then one by one, they had been taken away and left her all alone in the room, in her cage surrounded by the other cages. Most were empty, but some were filled with misshapen things that shouldn't even exist and were too unspeakable to even describe. Technically she wasn't alone, but these things were either dead, or near death, that soon enough she would be alone in here with the stench of death hanging around like a bad odor.

"I'm sorry Nathan," She whispered to herself, "I should have told you about why I had to escape. Why I couldn't continue being here."

In fact, her life had never been like the other experiments. She was meant to be the replacement to a failed experiment, one that had escaped and avoided being captured. She had been raised as a normal person would be with her own room, television, anything that a normal person would have; only she had the extra wings. They had trained her to think with her mind, to block all emotion, which was the weakness the original had, that she didn't think with her head, but with her heart, her emotions.

But they never told her everything. She was never meant to be the replacement. She was designed to be a part of the sick and twisted game the whitecoats played. They had told her, her final test would be to defeat the failed version of herself, that only one of them could live, but she had ultimately lost. The scientists wanted to see whether an experiment that fights with emotion, is better than an experiment that fights with her head. Emotions won out in the end and the scientists had no more need of her. The original had felt compassion and had let her live, although Laura stilled wondered why that was. The scientists had wanted one to kill the other, but because both were still alive, they were both considered failures.

Laura had been taken to one of these cages and locked up, treated like a normal experiment, a specimen. They had scheduled her for termination three days after she managed to escapes from Haven. During her training she had been conditioned not to feel emotion, but during her time waiting for death, fear began to creep back to her, soon after she escaped other emotions, anger, hatred, despair, bitterness had begun to show. She began to ask herself who she really was, or was she just a copy of some other person, the real person who had spared her life. She was left lost and confused, running for her life that seemed everyday to be more worthless than the previous day. Until Nathan showed her that, although she was copied from someone, she could choose to be someone entirely different, that's why she had decided to help him escape, after she told him about her past.

Just then the door to the room opened and three Erasers walked in, dragging a limp form between them. The Erasers walked past her cage to an empty one next to hers and threw the limp form in and walked back out, leaving her alone again. Laura looked over into the cage and realized that it was Nathan they had bought in, although he was unconscious again, and didn't look a hundred percent. She could see the watch they forgot to take off of him and realized that nearly a full day had passed since their return. Being locked in this room with no day or night, people lose sense of time, shat could be minutes could be days, especially in her exhausted state, while other times, when you couldn't get to sleep minutes seemed like hours.

Laura moved closer to the end of her cage, to get closer to Nathan and see if she could wake him. He was breathing shallowly as if he was in great pain. Then Laura saw the extra limbs that had been freshly grown on his body. He had wings, just like her, they had experimented on him as well. But how? He hadn't been born like that. Unless they had some sort of drug or something that made their bodies change. _Maybe that's what's causing him pain, _Laura thought, _because they are forcing his body to change. I need to get him away from here. He doesn't deserve this._

_**Chapter 12**_

The cold metal floor of the cage was soothing against my hot, burning skin. Pain racked my body and I kept floating between consciousness and unconsciousness, unsure of the passage of time. A short while after I had arrived, 'they' had taken me from the cell and down some plain barren white corridors to a large well lit room. The room was similar to an operating theatre you would find in a hospital. In the centre of the room was a metal slab with restraints linked to it to restrain the unwilling volunteers. I was roughly chucked up onto the metal slab, the cold creeping through my clothes and strapped so well into place that I couldn't move a single limb of my body.

A group of white clothed people had surrounded the table, clipboards in hand as if I they were studying a live animal during a biology class. They were most likely studying, but part of a biology class? I highly doubt that. These guys were professionals. I tried to struggle free, but the restraints dug into my skin, causing a stinging sensation each time I moved them.

After that, I couldn't remember properly. I remembered one of the white clothed people approaching my arm and injected it with a syringe filled with a nasty, yellow looking fluid. They emptied the syringe into me. For a moment, I felt nothing, not sure what was mean to happen. Then the pain began. It felt like my body was on fire, every nerve ending was being dipped into molten metal. For most of the time afterwards I couldn't remember much. Each time I woke to consciousness, the pain drove me back under. It seemed like days had passed since that time when I felt arms lift me and carry me back down the corridor to where I now lay in the cage I had been thrown into no so gently upon my arrival. But I was fine with it. The clod hard metal floor was soothing to my sweat covered, pain racked body.

I was dimly aware that I had changed, that something in that fluid had changed me, but what it had done, I couldn't tell. All I could do was lay there, letting the cool metal hold back the rushing heat of my body and endure the pain I was going through. I didn't know how long it was since my injection, and I didn't know how long I would have to endure the pain until it was finished. Most people would have given up to the pain, their exhausted and fatigued bodies not able to go on and they would have died. But I was stubborn; I was going to get through this, so I could get my payback on the people that had done this to me.

I must have passed out again from the pain because a soft voice was whispering not far from me. It was what had woken me up. I looked down at my arm and was surprised to see they hadn't taken the watch away from me. I glanced at the time, but the digital light display was too bright for my eyes, now used to lying in darkness. I closed my eyes to shield them from the light and that was when I realized my hearing was better, my sense on touch, of smell, of taste were better than before. I could feel the dampness of the room creeping over my body. The pain had subsided, for now at any rate, and I was able to move my stiff and sore limbs. It felt as though every bone in my body had been broken and then reset into place again.

"Nathan," I heard the whisper again and turned to the cage next to me and found Laura looking at me worried. "Nathan, you're alright?"

"I feel like every cell in my body was dipped in molten metal and then dropped in liquid nitrogen," I replied, "In short I fell terrible and I feel like I could throw up at any minute. Are you ok?"

Laura was silent before she spoke. I thought that maybe something had happened to her, something that she didn't want to talk about, but then she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm sorry Nathan," she cried softly, "It's because of me, your like this, in this predicament. Remember what that Eraser said before you passed out? That I wasn't as innocent as I seemed to be? I'll tell you why."

I lay quietly in the cage as Laura relayed to me the details of her life. How she was raised to be special, to replace a failed experiment, about the confrontation they had and how both had walked away. Then she explained about how they were different, how she was conditioned to not feel emotion. I felt a pang of sympathy for her when she said that. But she continued on about who after the fight, they were both classed as failed experiments and that one of them was supposed to die. It was just another sick and twisted game to see what would win. The cold logic of the mind, or the kind compassion of the heart. In the end, the heart had won. Laura told me of how afterwards she was dragged to a cell and scheduled for termination.

She told me of how she began to feel emotion again after that, of how she had broken through the barriers around her mind that prevented her from feeling emotion. She told him she escaped, but not how, she said she wasn't sure if they were listening or not, and then of her being chased by the Erasers and her eventual collapse on the tracks from utter exhaustion.

"I used to be one of them," She concluded quietly, "I used to work for them. I can't believe how naïve I was. I'm sorry I kept this from you Nathan. I didn't know how you would react."

"It's not your fault," I said softly, not able to speak above a whisper because of my raw throat, "You were bought up surrounded by lies. I don't think of you any less. People can't help how they are raised. I don't need to forgive you for anything. It was my choice to get involved."

I smiled weakly at this, trying to get her to cheer up and rolled painfully over onto my back and felt something padding the floor underneath me.

"Why is there padding in my cell?" I asked her.

"There isn't" She replied, cracking a smile at my confusion, "They're your wings. Welcome to my world, the world of winged people."

_They're your wings._ Laura's words rang through my head, reverberating around in there. I handled seeing a winged girl, that was a shock, but one I could handle. After all I did kind of believe in James Patterson's' book Maximum Ride. I read like a thousand times. But this was even more than I could handle. The thought of winged kids in the world was cool, but to suddenly become one? Suddenly my world began to swim and it wasn't from the pain, it was from the shock. I reeled over to the bars and ended up throwing up my breakfast from whenever I last ate. Things had finally caught up to me and my mind couldn't take it any more and I passed out from the overflow of information.


	8. Chapter 13 & 14

_**Chapter 13**_

A figure watched the room through a camera hidden above the door. He listened to the conversation they had about the girl, Keira II's past and watched the reaction of the boy as he found out what had happened to him. The figure was amazed the boy had lasted that long, the shock of seeing a winged, kid, an attack by the Erasers and the pain of the transformation, most people would have given up by now. It was too bad about the other one, how she couldn't be around much longer, it would have been interesting to survey the change in her personality since her last stay at Haven. Perhaps he could convince the higher ups to postpone her termination for a while longer. He didn't really want to lose the boy specimen and she was the only link he had to keeping sane.

There was a timid knocking on the door, followed by the doors slamming open and the secretary who had knocked hurrying out of the way of a tall, attractive, blond haired woman with a white coat covering her outside world clothes. Her piercing blue eyes immediately locked onto the figures own grey color ones as she stormed over to his desk.

"What is the meaning of this!" She shouted at him, "Keira II was scheduled for Termination and three new specimens were bought in and experimented on without my permission? Who authorized it?"

"I did," The figure replied calmly, "Although you might be surprised to hear that one of the specimens helped Keira II while he was still human, and therefore was my interest sparked about how he was so easily able to cope with things. I believe you work started with finding a cure for genetic mutations?"

"Yes," the woman replied briefly, "But the problem is that one of the specimens died during the changing process. We can't keep taking people out of the public eye and experimenting on them. The public would get suspicious. We've already had to move once because the FBI got too curious."

"Oh, we won't need to worry about that," The figure replied, "You'll recognize one of the, 'specimens', as you so politely called them. Take a look."

The woman walked around the desk and peered at the view the camera gave of the room. She peered in at the darkened room and saw the figures held in two of the cages. Then she saw the ripped t-shirt the boy was wearing, the blond mop of hair the covered his head, and last, his face. She recognized the face… it was her son, Nathan.

"You knew," She replied, "You knew he was my son and you still authorized it? You told me my family wouldn't be harmed, that they would be left alone. You swore it. Now where is my daughter, Danielle and my other son, Jake?"

"But you see," The figure replied, "Your son was able to down on of our Erasers protecting that girl. He used a .357 Magnum and blew a large hole through the heart and part of the left lung. He willingly helped the girl, and I believe I said your family would be safe, so long as they didn't get involved. As for your other children, three specimens were bought in, only two are still alive."

"You mean…?" The word choked in her mouth, but she was able to finish the sentence, "You mean that one of my Children are dead and the others just more specimens to study? What has happened to them?"

"Well you daughter and eldest son were to be changed, altered with the Avian recombination, you youngest son was changed with the wolf re-combination as he happened to be the youngest and would live a little longer."

"You monster," She replied, to him, tears falling down her face, "You monster. How can you be so cold and heartless? They are your children as well."

_**Chapter 14**_

I awoke to the familiar darkness of the room and the cold metal floor of my cage. I was feeling better than before, but was still nauseous from my transformation. _At least the pain has stopped, _I thought, _but now I have wings._ I reached over my shoulder and felt my hand brush the feathers on my new wings, making sure I wasn't dreaming, and pulled a feather out, feeling the small sting as it came free. I examined the feather; it was tan brown and snowy white in color, blending together to form a marble like patterning, like Laura's wings.

I tossed the feather aside and my eyes watched it float to the ground outside my cage. My night vision had greatly improved and I was able to look around the room. Many of the cages were empty, but my loathing for this place only increased when I saw what where in the occupied cages. I don't even know how to describe the horrors that looked back at me in fear and anger, or the others that lay breathing shallowly, almost near death.

Lastly I saw Laura in the cage next to me. She was asleep, shivering in the cold and at memories of that past now resurfacing. She looked pale and frightened lying in her cage, so fragile, so helpless, that I felt compelled to comfort her, but I knew she wanted to act tough, like back at the house and just for her sake, I let her. She had her ways of dealing with things. I don't know what I felt for her, but there was something there. I had never been good at making friends or forming bonds with people easily, yet I barely new this girl sitting a few feet away from me naming herself Laura. I didn't know much of her past, what she liked or disliked, yet here we were, facing probable death and she had become someone I could trust, one of the only people I found I could trust, now that my life was more chaotic than ever before.

As if sensing my gaze on her Laura stirred from her sleep and looked at me, putting on a fake smile, but I could see the pain in her eyes at being back here.

"Sleep well?" she asked. "How are you feeling?"

"I was passed out," I replied, "So I slept like a rock. As for how am I feeling? I'm feeling fine, a little nauseous, but fine. The pain has finally stopped."

She smiled, genuinely this time, and sat up with her back against the cage. We both tilted our heads as we heard footsteps approaching the door, a moment of silence, and then the turning of the handle and the door swinging open, a silhouette stood in the doorway. A light bulb came on and I had to shield my eyes from the painful light that illuminated the room until they had adjusted. I heard footsteps approach my cage and then stop in front of it. I heard the sound of the lock being opened, heard the sob as arms reached in and pulled me to them, out of the cage and hugged me.

"Nathan," A female voice said softly, one I recognized, "I'm glad you're alright. I'm glad you're safe."

"Mom?" I asked weakly, "What are you doing here?"


	9. Chapter 15 & 16

_**Chapter 15**_

Andrew Corway watched the reunion between mother and son through the camera he had been watching earlier. Three years ago, Andrew had been given the opportunity to work in a genetics lab working on DNA recombinants. He was the one that had put the final piece of the puzzle in place. He was the one that allowed the avian humans to be created, as well as the Lupus humans, the 'were-wolves' as the other scientists called them. Andrew was forced to fake his own death when the FBI got involved and the Network of lab spanning the country had hidden him, making it appear he was dead to the world, to his own family.

Then about six months ago, the labs became interested in his wife's work on curing genetic mutation. She was skilled and they had recruited her, against the respects of Andrew, and that was where Lea Corway found her supposedly dead husband. He had faked his own death to save his family pain, but now his family had become involved in something that would cause them more pain than if he was caught by the FBI.

Over the three years of his presumed death, Andrew forgot about his children and his wife deliberately so that he wouldn't endanger them. He had forgotten them to save them the pain; he had told himself they were no longer his children, his family. They belong to the man that died that day, the day of September 23rd 2003, his eldest son, Nathan's, fourteenth birthday. It was only now, upon seeing the son he hadn't recognized, that it was because of him, Nathan had developed the strong personality he had now. It was because he, Nathan's father, had died on his fourteenth birthday that Nathan had taken on the duty of the man of the house, taking care of his brother and sister, doing the work around the house while their mother worked to keep them fed and secure.

Andrew admired his son a little longer, proud of the person he had become, but afraid her could never be reunited with his son. He saw the loathing on his son's face as he looked around the room at the many failed experiments, or the successful one that had not been strong enough to withstand the test and were now laying on the edge of a cliff and should they fall, death would consume them. Just then his intercom buzzed and his secretary's voice came over the speaker.

"Mr. Corway, sir," She said, "There is a call for you on line three. The director wants to talk to you about subject nine, mark two."

"But him though," Andrew replied, picking up the phone as his secretary transferred the call to his private line. "Hello?"

"Mr. Corway," The directors electronically altered voice came through the speaker. The director never used his real voice, incase people were listening in on the call, "I would like for you to explain why you requested that subject nine mark two have its termination suspended until further notice?"

"My apologies for the abrupt message, Director, "But he was able to catch her as well as three specimen who helped her out, and proceeded to experiment on them. It appears that the first subject, Nathan has grown protective of her. And she is showing personality traits we had not trained into her. I believe she has begun to construct a new personality to which she is starting life anew. I would like to monitor this change in subject nine mark two."

"Agreed," The director replied after a short silence in which they pondered. No-one knew if the director was male or female. No-one, as far as Andrew knew, had ever seen the Director face to face, "but if she were to escape again, Mr. Corway, you will be solely to blame, you are the manager of that lab, so you take the fall for any escapees."

"Yes Director," Andrew replied, "I understand."

Andrew hung up the phone and had to smile. They were able to keep her alive a little longer. He had plans for her yet again, and Nathan was going to be a part of them as well. Keira II was made to replace the original Keira and lead her flock back to be captured again, but that had failed. Andrew pondered how he could get Keira and her flock back and a thought hit him. He needn't do anything. He could train Nathan up, teach him how to fly, implant a tracking device in him and let him lead them to Keira. The replica was an added bonus. He wanted to study her, see how she was able to break through the conditioning they had given her and how she was coping with the emotions she hadn't felt in years of her life. _She would be an interesting study,_ Andrew thought, _something I couldn't pass up._

_**Chapter 16**_

I pulled out of my mothers arms and looked her in the eye.

"Mom," I repeated, "What are you doing here? Why are you in a place like this? Did they get you as well?"

I saw the white lab coat she wore over her everyday clothes and realized the answer to my last question. She hadn't been captured, she worked here. I pushed myself away from her, a mixture of anger, betrayal, disgust and confusion on my face.

"You weren't captured were you?" I asked her, "You've been working here all along. Mother how could you? The kids, these people, you treat them like animals. Is that how you'll treat me? As just another experiment for you to study?"

"We have a lot to talk about, Nathan," My mother said, "It would be better to talk in my office, away from eavesdroppers."

I saw my Mother glance over in Laura's direction and realized she didn't want to talk in front of her. Then my mind started firing on all cylinders again. For my mother not to want to talk in front of Laura, she would have had to have seen her before, which meant that my mother had been her for a while, since before her escape.

"Fine," I replied, "Lead the way. I'll follow."

Before we left I looked back at Laura and hoped she read my lips as I mouthed to her that I'll tell her everything once I returned, then I followed my mother out of the room as she closed the door behind me and lead me down the bleak white corridors of the place until we reached a door with her name written on a plaque hung upon the door. She opened the door and walked in, letting me follow he through. The office wasn't as bleak as the corridors outside, but it was still painted the bleak white color all labs seemed to be made of. Pictures of her with me, Danielle and Jake were standing on her desk and there was also a picture of my father as well. I remembered he died on my fourteenth birthday. They never recovered a body. Mum never told me what accident my father had been in, no-one else told me either.

"The first thing I'll say," My mother began, "is that you weren't meant to be experimented on. This was all a mistake, but the transformation back has a high chance of killing you, if you still want to be normal."

"I want to know what is going on mother," I replied, "Why are you here? Working for them?"

Lea Corway sat down at her desk and looked up at me standing in front of her desk. She flicked a switch beneath the desk and leaned back into her chair.

"Nathan," She explained, "First thing you must know, is that I have done this for you. For years I have tried to find a cure for your condition, I have tried to find a way to stop the dreams you always had when you were a child just over five years old. I was always up in the night caring for you, helping you to get back to sleep. For many years I worked on that project, but it was slow because I didn't have enough funding, or the proper equipment."

"About six months ago, this place approached me and offered to fund my research and supply the equipment needed to help me find a cure for you," She continued, "They provided me an offer I couldn't refuse. The money was enough to keep our family safe and secure."

"What about them?" I asked, "Experiments like I am? People here treat them like dirt. They observe them like lab rats, force them to do experiments till they are exhausted or near death. How can you excuse yourself from that? It's inhumane, yet you continue it."

"Nathan," Lea answered, "The people here have made breakthroughs in science. They have found ways top unlock people's potential. We have found ways to combine another animals DNA into a humans, creating people like you, or the Erasers. We have even found ways of locating mutations, of reversing them. I have a cure for you, Nathan, a cure!"

"I don't want it," I replied. "You've been away from home for so long; you failed to notice I have managed to control my ability. I still have some dreams, but I have learnt to block it. Even if you have a cure, I don't want it from you. You're no longer the mother I used to know. The one I did know wouldn't have let the kids here suffer like you have. Take me back to my cage; I'd be better of there."

I saw the heartbreak on my mothers face. She had wasted her life away to find a cure for my ability and, now that she had found it, the person she had made it for, me, no longer wanted it or needed it. It was because of me she had ended up here, trying to find the cure. I felt sorrow at how I had treated my mother, I still loved her like any son would, but she needed the harsh awakening from the reality she live in now. She needed her eyes opened to what was going on around her and forget about the ambition she felt at finding all these discoveries.


	10. Chapter 17 & 18

_**Chapter 17**_

"Your mother works here?" Laura asked me.

After I had finished talking with my mother, I had been escorted back to the room by two Erasers and was roughly thrown into my cage. Once they had left I sat in silence before Laura asked me the question.

"Yeah," I said, letting the disgust showing in my voice, "I never knew. It disgusts me that she can work in a place like this, with everything they do. She knew what they did, yet her ambition over-ruled her sense of righteousness. The mother I had known was kind and caring. The person she's become now is the complete opposite."

"Why?" Laura asked, "Why did she get involved in the first place?"

"For me," I replied, sorrow in my voice, "She wanted to help me by curing my ability. She did all of this to find the cure for me and I threw it back in her face."

"I wish I even had a mother," Laura replied, "But I'm still a nobody with a name. I'm just an image of another person. I don't belong anywhere."

I lay down on my cage floor, my folded wings cushioning my back from the cold steel floor. I leaned my head back on my hands and propped my feet on the ground with my knees bent to fit in the cage. I lay there for a moment before I spoke again.

"You aren't just an image of another person," I replied, "You were created to look like the original, trained to be like her, but you aren't really her, you have your own personality. You don't have to be her. A friend would be better. If you ever find her again, become her friend."

I smiled to myself, but she must have caught a glimpse of it from where she sat in her cage.

"What are you smiling about?" She asked curious about what was on my mind.

"Well, in the real world," I answered, "There are people who look exactly alike, but have different personalities. They are called identical twins. Laura, you are the girl's identical twin. I just thought of that. What is the girl's name? The one you were made to replace?"

"Keira," She replied, "That was her name. I was named Keira II, not very original, don't you agree?" She fell silent thinking about what I had said, and then asked, "What are we going to do now?"

"I don't know," I replied, "You said when you were being trained they gave the experiments who were co-operative rooms of their own and free access to areas around the place, right?"

"Yeah," Laura replied, "What are you getting at?"

"If I can become trusted," I said, "I could get access to places around Haven. While they train me, I could plan an escape."

"An average plan," Laura replied, "Except you forgot one thing. I'm not going to be trusted. They have me scheduled for termination. I won't be around for much longer."

"I don't think they want you dead yet," Nathan replied with a smile, "Let's just say I have a hunch they want to study you're new personality, how you are able to cope with emotions you haven't felt in years."

"Really?" Laura asked playfully, "And how good are your hunches?"

"They're normally correct," I replied, "This I'm certain of. Call it a foresight."

Laura smiled and I smiled back. I rolled over onto my side and thought about everything that had happened, about all I had given up and what I missed about normal life. I never thought I'd prefer a boring life to this. I wanted adventure, now I had a nightmare to live. Sometimes I don't know when to leave things as they are. Fate had a complex and twisted destiny for me. I had enough to ponder and I suspected tomorrow was going to be a busy day, so I curled up and went to sleep, not realizing the wings folding around me naturally as if I had them all my life.

_**Chapter 18**_

"Come on," The Eraser snarled at me, "I thought you were tougher than this. The Erasers said you were a hard one to take down, that you killed Miguel. But that was with a gun wasn't it? Now what are you going to do? You don't have any guns."

I rolled my eyes to annoy him even more and stood my ground waiting for him to attack first. I had learnt in fights at school to never make the first move, let them go first. I didn't have to wait long as the Erasers swung a foot up towards my left cheek. I ducked below it and rammed my foot up into his stomach, hearing the air rush out his lungs as I winded him and sent him flying backwards. A second Eraser attacked me from the left, but I saw the small movement before he lunged, grabbed his wrist as he was about to hit, and swung him, using his own weight against him, into the first Eraser that was still recovering. The third Eraser go lucky, placing a well aimed punch on my right side ribs. A pain stabbed through me as I heard the bone crack, but not break. Training was always like this.

I had been here for a total of three days, I found out, before they had deemed me well enough to start their sick and twisted tests. First they decided to see if my strength and speed were the same as the others who were born with wings, and that's started with an hour long fight with three erasers, fun.

The third Eraser was about to take another swing at me until I recovered and blocked out the pain, striking back with a fist of my own that smashed into his jaw, knocking out a few teeth with the force. He staggered back, reeling from the blow. The first and second of the group were just recovering and I shifted my attention to them while keeping my eye of the third one. They attacked both at the same time, the third one joining in soon after as they attacked me from three directions. I blocked the first attack and struck back at the Eraser, cracking his ribs from a well placed round house kick and spun my attention to the second Erasers as he sent a fist flying. I ducked to the side, rolling under the attack and kicked up, performing the nut cruncher maneuver and the Eraser went down with a painful look on his face. The third Eraser had been put off by my roll from the previous attack, but recovered quickly to lunge at me, tackling me down to the ground, arms pinned under his own ones, legs held down by his. I was well and truly pinned.

"How are you getting out of this one?" The Eraser asked, "No experiment has been able to. I doubt you would."

"Oh, please," Nathan said, "I've fought in enough school fights to learn a few tricks. The first of those tricks is this…"

As I finished talking to him, I spat in his face, fighting dirty. Hey, Erasers got to fight dirty, they could transform at will, so why wasn't I allowed to use a few dirty tricks. As I expected the Eraser let go of my arms to wipe his face and that gave me the chance I needed. I aimed a fist at his stomach and punched it hard enough to make the guy gag from the force. The second punch I landed on his face, smashing his cheek to the side and hearing his jaw bone crack, possibly break from the punch. As he reared back in pain, his half transformed claws slashed me across the chest, leaving three crimson lines staining my shirt red and blood drip through the holes of the shirt.

"Enough," A voice barked out over the intercom high in the ceiling above. They had all been watching the fight from the room next door, through the one way glass, "Sessions over. Report to the infirmary to get your wounds checked."

I smirked. The guy on the other end of the intercom sounded really annoyed that I had won. Maybe they had a bet going on, seeing who would win and placing bets on whether it would be me or the Erasers. Well I had won, so I wonder how much money people would have lost? I dragged myself down the infirmary, my breath wasshort from the pain in my right ribs. The slash marks I could ignore, they were minor and were practically healed, because of the change. I still called it a change because that's what it was, but I might as well call it the death of my old self.

The doctors checked my wounds and ordered me to lie still on the examining table as her took x-ray's of my right ribs to see if they were broken. He got some swabs and cleaned the blood off my chest and cut off my last remaining shirt from the outside world. It was going to be so hard to replace that now I'm here.

"Well you are lucky," The doctor said, "Your ribs aren't broken, although there are about three that have been cracked and a fourth that has been bruised. I'd hate to see what you've done to the Erasers."

He had barely spoken the words when the Erasers walked in through the door. One was staggering around, his pain evident on his face and I guessed he was the one I had hit in the sore spot. Another was lying limp between the two of them, this one's jaw was clearly broken and he did not look very good, blood dripping from his mouth. The third one had a bright red mark on his head and wandered around as if in a daze and I guessed I must have given him a concussion.

"Thanks doc," I replied, "I'm Nathan. I think you might be seeing me often enough to be able to call me that. I'm already beginning to hate this place."

"It'll only get worse," The doc said, warning me, "It always gets worse. You seem a nice kid, Nathan, even if your mother works here. I just feel sorry you got involved."

As soon as I heard my mother mentioned I continued on my way back to my cage under escort by two Erasers. When the doctor had mentioned my mothers name, I guessed she had pulled a few strings to make sure I wasn't treated as rough as the others. _Gee thanks mom,_ I thought, _you're the one who got me into this mess in the first place my creating that drug which changed me._

I was shoved into my cage and then left alone, Laura had disappeared out of her cage, takensomewhere. I hoped it wasn't to be terminated…


	11. Chapter 19 & 20

**_Chapter 19_**

I must have fallen asleep from exhaustion in my cage because the next thing that happened, I was being woken up by the bright light shining through the doorway into the room. I shielded my eyes from the light and looked at the figure in the doorway. It was my mother.

"What do you want?" I asked her coldly, although it hurt me inside to treat her like that.

"You're being moved," She replied, "I managed to convince them to give you a room. I wanted to keep an eye on you."

"Great," I replied sarcastically, "Just when I was getting comfy in my little cage."

Two Erasers stepped in through the door and approached my cage. I noticed they were extra wary of me and wondered why, then remembered the fight that happened yesterday and smiled. At least they knew to be careful around me. I exited my cage and stood upright, hearing my back click as I stretched it and walked towards the door. I passed my mother at the door. She had a cold and impassive face on, but I could see the hurt in her eyes from the way I was treating her.

They led me down a bleak white corridor after bleak white corridor until I began to notice most of the people walking down the hallways were either Erasers or winged people, people like me. They gave me curious glances as they walked past, but otherwise said nothing. Eventually we reached a white (what else?) door with a window set in the top half of it and a cold steel handle. My mother opened it and walked in, leaving the Erasers at the door, on either side. I walked in to look at the average room. It was white walled, white roofed and grey carpeted (Wow they had grey carpet? That was different).

"Those that get moved here get an extra request," My mother said, turning to face me, "A request for things like books, a TV or a stereo. Anything you want?"

"Where is Laura?" I asked her; surprised that was the first question I asked. Normally I would have asked for a TV with a playstation, I guess things like this change people.

My mother looked uncomfortable at my question, not sure about whether to answer it or not. She eventually caved seeing that I was going to be stubborn about it and sighed.

"She's being held separate from the others," She replied, "They don't want her here with the others. She used to live here until she failed. That's why they want to keep her separate."

"My request is," I started, "That she moves into the room next door. I know it's empty I saw it as we went passed. She's about the only person keeping me sane here, and I don't trust you enough to leave her alone with you. She's been through enough here."

"I'll check and see about that," My mother replied then muttered under her breath, "you care more about her than your family."

"I care about my family mother," I replied, "that's why I was going to ask where Danielle and Jake are. I haven't seen them since my arrival. Are they ok?"

"Jake's fine," My mother replied, "he's become an Erasers. He's enjoying it though, seems to think it's cool being a were-wolf. Danielle…"

My mother broke off when she mentioned my sister's name. I knew that something bad had happened then, when I saw the look on my mothers face. I saw the sorrow in her eyes and the tears she held back.

"She didn't make it," I replied, shock making my voice sound numb, deadened, "She couldn't handle the transformation, could she?"

"No," My mother replied, "She couldn't."

My mother exited the room, fighting to hold back tears and I collapsed onto the floor in shock. My sister was dead? No it couldn't be! She was always so stubborn, when she was fully awake that was. I sat there for ages before I began to feel emotion again. When it returned a wave of grief washed over me and I let out an anguished cry as it finally sunk it. I began to smash my fist against the wall, repeating no over and over, not wanting to accept it, not caring that my fist was slowly losing the feeling from the repeated pounding I gave it on the wall. Eventually I exhausted myself and curled up in a ball on the floor, tears falling silently down my cheek. Danielle was dead… and it was all my fault.

_**Chapter 20**_

The day went by in a blur. I didn't pay any attention to them. I barely ate and spent most of my time sitting in my room crying or smashing the wall, as both grief and anger swept through me until I was so emotionally I exhausted I fell asleep. My mother visited me twice, only to find me unresponsive to her attempts at starting a conversation. The only thing I could remember her saying was Laura was allowed the room next door, that the higher up's seemed to be interested in me and Laura.

I attended my lessons on both self-defense and Flying, but my heart wasn't in it. I just wanted to curl up and to have the world leave me alone and let me rot to death. I no longer cared any more. It was only at her funeral that I started to become the person I used to be, but with a new determination. I had to fold my wings and hide them from the public at her funeral. The story was that she died from a drunk driver in a car accident and that I had been away from school from grief. People accepted this story, knowing how close we used to be, even though we were always arguing.

They cremated her. I suppose partially because it was to make sure no-one could dig her up and find out she had wings. I had wanted to be cremated when I died. I believed it left nothing behind for the soul to remain and let it's journey continued forwards to the afterlife. Danielle shared the same belief and dying wish I did. It was while watching the coffin; I made a promise to Danielle to not let them beat me and that I would escape. I made her a promise to survive for her, and to be strong. I couldn't promise her I could look after Jake. He was taking being an Eraser too well; he seemed to enjoy torturing things when he went out hunting with the rest of the pack. I could see it had warped and twisted him. But I did make her the promise to look after Laura, because she was the one who showed us the truth.

I flashed back to the night in which I had slept in fathers study, across the hall from Danielle. I remember hearing Danielle sneak out of her room to talk to Laura, listened to their whispered conversation in my room through the wall. Danielle had asked so many questions about Laura, and Laura asked Danielle about the real world. I don't know what it was that allowed them to bond so fast, perhaps it was a girl thing, but I made that promise to Danielle to look after Laura.

When her ashes had been scattered I walked back to the car that had bought me here, a single tear fell down my cheek. I held a new determination in my heart, one to escape, to protect Laura from the whitecoats, the scientists and to be free. I was going to learn, go to my classes and excel at all of them, biding my time to escape until the moment was correct. I was going to wait and plan the escape well. I would use my ability to see all possibilities and fix any problems that might occur. They had messed with the wrong person and I was going to make sure they paid for it.

The drive back to Haven was quiet. My mother and brother not saying a word and I stared out the window at the sun setting the sky on fire as it set below the horizon. It burned an unnatural red to mark the death that had been mourned today, and the new spark of life that now sat inside me, fueling me on. Once we arrived, I ignored all the people that showed up to give the family sympathies and tell us how sorry they were for our loss. I didn't need that, it would have only fuelled the anger that I was trying so hard to control inside me.

Laura was in her room as I walked down the corridor and came out to greet me. I could tell she was sad about my sister's death. Her eyes showed the tell tale signs of crying, but she had seen death before, once you have seen death, it doesn't scare you any more. It doesn't hold the same effect it once used to. I told her to lay low and do what they wanted for the time being, while I prepared our escape. I didn't want to be here any second longer than I needed to. Laura was just happy I was back to being myself.

I entered my room and saw that most of my stuff from my home at room had been transferred in and wondered who had done that and why. I knew when, it was while I was at Danielle's funeral. I hadn't had time to ponder it, I was exhausted over all the events that had happened to day and putting up with the sympathies and placing on an act all day that as soon as my head hit my old pillow I fell asleep straight away.


	12. Chapter 21 & 22

_**Chapter 21**_

It was about a week before they allowed me back into the lessons. I had told them repeatedly that I was fine; that I had accepted my sister's death at the funeral and had done all the grieving I needed. They had kept me in my room for that week and I was bored out of my mind. They only company I had was Laura, and even then her visits were only brief because of the testing the whitecoats wanted to do on her. But I always found something to occupy my time. First it was examining my new wings, now that I had begun to get used to them there I began to notice things that naturally happened, like whenever I curled up to sleep they wings folded around me like a blanket, or how when I was surprised my wings opened slightly, as if getting ready to fly, although I don't know how to yet.

If it wasn't that, then I was on my computer, studying birds, their wing feathers, the structure of their wings and how they moved them in flight. It was there that I learnt how to lift myself of the floor. I didn't try any acrobatics in my small room, but I did manage to get myself to float of the floor while flapping my wings. After achieving that I began to study in depth the movement of bird wings in flight, watching documentaries on the TV and read up on how each feather controls what part of flight. I began to store the knowledge in my mind, began to remember it until eventually I didn't had to think about it, it was all done on instinct. The only problem was I needed open space to test my flying skills, but they wouldn't let me, not until now. And here I am, at my first flying lesson. Who knew there were more like me? More people who had been drugged and transformed into bird people. From catching their conversations most of them were willing test subject, orphans.

"Right, listen up," A voice commanded over the people collected on the field outside, "There are a few rules you will learn while out here, but I will give you the two main ones. Unless instructed by an instructor like myself, or any other instructor, no-one is allowed to go outside the perimeter of the compound; otherwise you'll have a retrieval squad on your tail. The second Rule is this; there will be no escape attempts by anyone while in the class understood? Otherwise I get the blame and I will personally hunt you down and kill you myself. Most of you here are filling participants and we won't have the problem, but there were others, who the only way we could save them was by changing them."

The Instructor looked at me as he said the last bit, but I just stared back at him. He was only about eighteen, a year older than me, military style haircut and was dressed in the all white clothing this place gave people who didn't have clothes. He had wings like us, except they were of a dark, wooden brown. I guessed I figured out how he was going to teach us.

"My name is Dean," He said, "I am your flight instructor. Would you all kindly remove your coats and spread your wings out. I am going to teach you the basics of flying. How to control your flight using your feathers and wing movement."

Dean noticed I hadn't moved from against the building and approached me. I ignored him and continued to look out over the forest below us and the mountains in the distance. Guess what? Flying lessons are held on a cliff on the northern side of Haven.

"Nathan remove your coat and join the class," Dean ordered.

"Oh, but I like black," I said removing my black trench coat, "and I prefer to watch and wait. I already know this."

"I doubt that," Dean replied casually, then turned to the rest of the class, "In fact I doubt any of you would be able to lift off the ground as of yet. I have a free all access pass to anywhere in Haven for the first person who can get airborne."

An all access pass? That could come in handy for my planning. I had to get that pass. But unfortunately things weren't that simple were they.

"I have a second all access pass for people," Dean said, "but since Nathan here thinks he is an expert, he can have it, if he can beat me in a flight race." He turned to me, "First one to that mountain peak and back wins, and anything goes."

_Anything goes?_ This was going to get interesting.

_**Chapter 22**_

There were no rules. We could do anything we wanted. I approached the cliff face to prepare for take off. Dean walked up beside me with a look of determination on his face. He wasn't going to let a new person like me beat him. I'd have to show him. One of the students shouted go to signal the start of the race. Dean shoved me off the cliff and launched himself into the air. I pulled my wings in closer, shifting the feathers for the dive to gain maximum speed. I plummeted towards the ground, the trees slowly growing larger and larger, the wind whistling past me ears at a deafening howl and the force of gravity began to rattle my bones.

Once I was sure of my speed, I flared my wings open, locking the feathers to grab as much air as possible and shot along close to the ground and near supersonic speeds, or so they appeared. I tilted upwards and used my speed while flapping my wings to gain altitude, slowly gaining on the lead Dean had on me. He seemed surprised to see my still flying, even more surprised to see me catching up to him. I continued to climb, flying towards the mountain peak. I love the thrill of going at incredible speeds and feeling the adrenaline course through my blood. The view was unbelievable; I could see rivers and lakes spread through the green sea of trees spread out below me. The mountain peak began to get closer and I could make out the rock features buried in snow. Dean was just ahead of me banking into the turn that would take him around the peak and back to Haven. As I passed the mountain, I made sure I was close enough to grab a couple of fists full of snow. I packed them into hard balls and threw them at Dean, the first missed, the second hitting him square in the middle of the back, making him lose speed and altitude as he had to correct his flying from losing concentration. Anyone feel like a game of aerial snow ball fighting?

As we flew back I began to gain on Dean. The snow ball seemed to cause a sting that annoyed him had made him lose his concentration. Well he said anything goes. I drew near him, flying almost directly above him and had to perform a barrel roll as he bought out a small rock to throw at me. I avoided it and crept into the lead while Dean recovered. Haven was within visible distance without using our bird like vision and I estimated the distance, letting Dean take the lead and let him think he was winning, and then once I was sure, I folded my wings, aiming at the cliff below where the class stood. I plummeted in a straight line, aimed right for the cliff face. I passed Dean and was the look of surprise on his face as I shot passed. The air was rushing at me again, but my vision was focused on the point of the cliff I had aimed for. At the last moment I angled up sharply and zoomed almost straight up the rock face and landed right in front of the shocked and stunned faces of the class.

"I think I win," I said, before throwing my coat on and walking back into the compound. I had got what I needed. I wanted to fly, outside the perimeter and see what it was like, see how long I could handle myself before I collapsed. While I was by the mountain I had found a small cave that was hidden from plain sight, but I had noticed it s I went in close to the mountain. It would be a good hiding spot. Erasers couldn't climb there and it wasn't easy to notice from the air. Especially by helicopters. Only the winged kids might pose a problem. The all access pass was only a bonus to what I had wanted to do. It would give me access to anywhere I wanted to go. Including archives. But I didn't want to be too obvious about it. Another obstacle to ponder.

As I entered the building I was greeted by the warm and cheery faces of four Erasers and my mother standing at the head with a look of pure anger on her face. What have I done now?

"Nathaniel Derrick Corway," My mother scolded me. I knew I was in trouble when she used my full name, "You broke almost three different protocols in disobeying you Instructor and Flying out to that mountain and back. You were unprepared for a flight of that length and could have failed in mid flight."

"But I didn't mother," I replied, "I knew what I was doing, and I won against Dean. Now if you don't mind, I don't care how many protocols I broke or nearly broke. I'm tired and want some rest. Flying uses a lot of energy. You should try it sometime. Oh wait… you only want to test others, never yourself. Next time you try to lecture me, look in the mirror, she's the one that need lecturing."

I stormed off into my room and collapsed on my bed, but I couldn't get to sleep, no matter how much my muscles hurt. It was the adrenaline in my blood from experiencing my first flight. I was thrilled. And now I had the key to getting out of here anytime I want. I just had to plan on using it wisely…


	13. Chapter 23 & 24

_**Chapter 23**_

I had been on my bed resting for ten minutes before my next class started when a knock came at the door. I wondered who the heck that would be. Laura was out being experimented on and I felt a twinge of anger at the though of what they might be doing to her. I slowly got up off the bed, dragged myself to the door and opened it to look into Deans hazel brown eyes.

"Nathan, was it?" Dean asked as I peered around the door at him, "When did you learn to fly like that?"

I moved aside and gestured him into my room then closed the door behind him. I pointed to a chair to indicate he was allowed to sit and sat down on my bed.

"To be honest," I replied, "I had only been able to lift myself off the ground and hover. But I had studied the movement of bird feathers and their wings during flight. I slowly memorized it until it became second nature to me. I had the knowledge, but lacked the time or experience to put it to use. So I used your class as an excuse to try out a few things. That race was the excellent chance to."

"Don't worry," Dean said smiling, "It's happened before. I did the same thing with my instructor when I learnt. Even though I was born with wings and had the natural instinct for it, even we natural winged people have to learn to fly. Although in my case at the time I couldn't handle such a flight and almost fell to my death until the instructor rescued me. Anyway what I'm saying is that would you mind helping me teach the class to fly? It also helps impress the top guns."

"I'll think about it Dean," I replied, "But shoving people off cliffs is not a good way to make friends. You're just lucky I knew how to fly, otherwise I would have ended up paste on the ground."

"I would have stopped your fall," Dean replied, "I almost did until you pulled out of the dive. By the way, your throw is accurate, that snowball stung like heck. Ever considered joining the Avian Paintball squad? They could do with someone like you to teach them"

"Paintballing?" I asked, "Man I loved to play that back in my old life. Packs a punch, stings like heck, but it's worth it for the fun. You play?"

"Yeah," Dean said, "I'm the most decent shot they have on the team. You'd at least rival me in that. How about a one on one trial match to see if you've got what it takes?"

"I'll accept," I replied, "I think I'm beginning to like you already Dean. Say, this doesn't go up against the Eraser team does it?"

"Once or twice a term at school," Dean replied, "And I think we will be great friends."

I smiled and shook the hand Dean extended to shake on the deal of joining for the team. As Dean went to leave he whispered in my ear.

"I know you want to escape," He said, "You want to help Laura escape. I'm a telepath, but your secret is safe with me. I help kids escape. We've been running the underground escape tunnels for years here, since I was eleven or twelve. I can help you out."

I smiled, let my mental defenses down and searched the images of the past for the possibilities of trusting Dean. Nothing showed up bad, so I nodded.

"I'll let you know when I have something sorted out," I replied, "Until then, I'm learning all I can to survive. You know the Erasers have a weakness. Clap you hands over their ears during a fight, it bursts the ear drums."

Dean smiled and walked out the door, acknowledging my tip with a small inclination of his head. I followed him out of my room, locking it after me and walked off down the corridor to the training room as the set up the room for the Paintball practice. This was going to be fun. But my thoughts turned to the scientists and how they had managed to make it look fun for those staying, but there was another reason why they trained us in ways like this. That reason I still had to figure out.

_**Chapter 24**_

Andrew Corway sat behind his desk staring at the two people sitting opposite him. One was his wife Lea. Although she had been technically widowed upon his staged death, they had re-married in secret when she found out he was still alive. The other person was the head scientist who was leading the research into the development of the girl, Laura's, new personality and emotions.

"Lea," Andrew said, "Tell me how Nathan is doing. Is he well? Coping with everything? What about Jake? He seems to be fitting in well with the rest of the pack."

"Nathan is excelling in his classes," Lea replied, "He seems to study well, is passing with good grades in the normal classes he attends. He had his first flying lesson today and, well Even Dean was amazed buy the skill Nathan has gathered in only a few days and has requested that Nathan help train the rest of the class. Dean has talked him into trying out for the Avian Paintball team. They are training now. We like to keep them entertain. I doubt they realize why we give them activities like that. Jake is indeed fitting well with the rest of his pack. His reckless behavior is a bit of a problem. He expresses violent outbursts of anger occasionally, but otherwise seems to have forgotten Nathan entirely."

"Good," Andrew Replied, "And Professor, are the studies of Laura revealing anything about how she was able to break the conditioning? Any signs on how she was able to feel emotion again?"

"The neural pathways we suppressed to stop her feeling," The doctor explained, seemed to have re-awoken. They are functioning like a normal persons mind would work. She is able to feel emotion again, although her mind is still learning to cope with a few of the un-encountered emotions. She seems to not understand happiness nor relief, but she has shown signs of possible attachment to another person. This I can't explain, but shall try and figure it out."

"Good," Andrew replied satisfied with their reports, "You may continue your studies of the specimens. I will be looking forward to your next update."

Lea and the scientists left and Andre turned his attention to the screen to watch Nathan play paintball with others like him. Andrew had taught Nathan that game when Nathan was younger, but after getting tied up in his work, they drifted apart. Nathan seemed to have put all of that behind him and seemed to get on with his life. Andrew turned his thoughts from Nathan and onto Laura. She was a copy of the experiment who called herself Keira. She had the same personality as Keira, same appearance. So what changed? What made her different to Keira? Was it the fight his bosses had ordered was necessary? Or was it something that happened afterwards? And the attachment to someone else was interesting thing to ponder. He knew there was only one person Laura had enough time to grow close to and that was Nathan? _My two different pet projects_, He thought, _who would have guessed that they would meet each other, let alone grow close?_ Andrew pondered this as he watched his son spray paintballs along one of his enemies in the training room. Perhaps he could use each of them for his own ends, manipulate the connection they had. Then the Director would take notice of him. But only then…


	14. Chapter 25 & 26

_**Chapter 25**_

An hour after we started, we walked out of the Training room. Dean and I limped along from bruises we had received from the fight. During my try-out for the team, we had obstacles to shoot from behind with. I passed that with one hit on my shoulder and another on my wing. _Note to self, _I though, _remember you have wings now._ Paintballs to the wing really sting more than you expect. It was afterwards that we got most of our bruises. We decided top have fun and get rid off all obstacles and have a full out shoot out with the paintball guns until we ran out of paintballs. We can safely say we redecorated the room with bright new colors, even if they were randomized from shooting. It looks like someone went in with buckets of paint and just threw it on the walls.

"Nice shooting," Dean said, "I can see you've played Paintball before. Who taught you?"

"My dad," I replied, "But he died nearly three years ago. Ever since then I kind of stopped playing it. I forgot how much fun it was."

"Well," Dean said, "The others decided you were good enough for the team. How much do you hate the Erasers? I mean most avian kids hate them. The Erasers act as if they own the place, ruling over us like bullies in a playground. Even we, the willing experiments, are sick of them."

"Well," I replied, "They did smash my house around a bit. Tried to attack me for protecting Laura and let's not forget the whole drugging and dragging me here for experimentation thing. So yeah, it's safe to say, I have a grudge against them that won't go away for a long time."

"Say Nathan," Dean asked, "Do you have a last name? There have been rumors that you're the son of one of the whitecoats here. Is it true?"

"Yeah," I replied, "My name is Nathan Corway. My mother is Lea Corway, one of the whitecoats here. My father supposedly died three years ago, as I mentioned earlier, but a body was never found. The FBI was investigating him and it led me to believe he staged his own death. The crimes he was charged with by the FBI made me force myself tobelieve he was dead. I had no use for a father like him, and now my Mother is doing the same work my father did."

"Corway?" Dean repeated, "Lea Corway works here. She was the one who asked me if I wanted to become an experiment. I was an Orphan you see. My parents died in a plane accident when I was young. But there is another person who goes by the name Corway here. He's the head man, Andrew Corway."

"Did you just say Andrew Corway?" I asked, stopping dead in my tracks. I knew that name too well, "Andrew Corway is my father. So he did stage his death. I'll never forgive him for what he did. He was the one who found the key tokeepingpeople like us alive back in the 1990's as far as I can recall the FBI saying, they thoughtI wasn't listening. They found his papers at the lab he worked in. After that he staged his death and left us to fend for ourselves. I'll never forgive him for that. He betrayed my mother, my brother and my sister. He murdered my sister here in one of his experiments and worst of all, he betrayed my trust. I used to look up to him and say that's the man I want to be. Now, I don't even want him back in my life, yet here he is."

"Man," Dean replied, "That's one loony family you got there, Nathan. It seems you and you brother and sister were the only sane ones there."

"We had to look after ourselves," I replied, "My mother was working on finding ways to treat genetic mutations. I was born with a mutation that made my eye color naturally pale violet, but allowed me to see possibilities of the future. She's been trying to find a cure for me and she has. But I refused to take it."

I fell silent then, remembering the pain in my mother's eyes as I told her I no longer needed the cure she had sacrificed her life to create for me. It wasn't something I wanted to talk about and Dean could sense it. We arrived at my room and I said my goodbye to him as I limped in through the door and sat down on the bed. My father was still alive? All this time I had suspected it, but never really looked into it, but all along he had been alive and continuing these experiments? I shook my head in disbelief. Things were just getting weirder and weirder for me. I had to get out and I was taking Laura with me.

_**Chapter 26**_

There was a knock at my door and I opened my eyes. I must have fallen asleep and missed my afternoon classes. Yes classes. They had things here to keep us busy. Probably to stop us from trying to escape, the ones that have the bird instinct for freedom that is. Others seemed not to mind living here, or were too afraid of the Erasers to try and escape.

I rolled stiffly off the bed from my bruises and opened the door to find my mother standing there, dressed in her white coat. _What does she want now? _I thought, _as if I can't guess._ I noticed the two Erasers outside the door and wonder what they were doing here. No Erasers were allowed in the avian dormitories unless given orders to escort someone, or protect a whitecoat. I moved aside to let my mother in, but closed the door behind her as I noticed the Erasers didn't move.

"What do you want, now?" I asked her, "I don't tend to associate with criminals. Even if half these people are orphans I highly doubt there was any papers to be signed, but they were abducted and are now presumed dead. Human experimentation is illegal."

"Nathan," My mother replied, "We tried for years to experiment on animals for our tests until they were satisfactory, but that never worked. It was designed for the animals, not the humans. We had no way of knowing what would happen unless we tested it on humans."

"The self-righteous, we did nothing wrong speech," I replied, "Spare me the lecture mother. No matter what achievements you have made, it's still criminal, now what is it you want?"

My mothers face hardened and I was unsure of what she was up to. The only time I had seen my mother harden like that was when I was eight years old and wanting a new paintball gun, but mother didn't want me having one, said it was too dangerous. She was dead set on that decision and nothing would change her mind. That was until my father had bought it for me. He bore the brunt of the storm until she calmed down when she saw I had learnt how to use it properly. That same look was now on her face.

"This is for you own good, Nathan," She said, "You may think you don't need the cure for your mutation, but it's damaging to your health. In your new state I don't know what could happen; you need to take the shot. There is the easy way, or there are the two Erasers outside the hall if you decide to take the hard way."

"You should know me by now, Mother," I replied, preparing for a fight, "I always take the hard way. It's a lot more righteous than the easy way. As the saying goes, the easy way isn't always the right way. Remember that when you think back on all you've done. It'll haunt you."

My mother looked at me with sad eyes, but her face remained determined. She called out to the Erasers and they came through the door and began to advance on me, but I was ready to fight them. I had lived in this room for the past week of my life; I knew the angles, the dimensions inside and out. I was ready for a fight in this room. The first Eraser lunged at me, but it was a feint as the second Eraser moved in to attack me from behind, but I hooked the bedside table with my foot and swung it up with force into the attacking Erasers face, smashing the wood and causing him a great deal of pain as splinters entered his skin. The first Eraser lunged at me from behind, but I was ready for the attack and kicked back with my foot hitting him in the stomach and winding him. I turned to my mother.

"You see what you've made me become?" I asked her, "You made me part animal, so when I'm in danger, I act to protect myself. You made me like this mother. Now you see who I really am."

The first Eraser had recovered from his lack of breath and grabbed me from behind, pinning my wings and arms to my body. I swung me feet up and used the wall to flip up over the Eraser, bringing him with me until I flung him through a wall and out into the corridor. Stunned faces looked from the Unconscious Eraser on the floor to me in my room. The Second Eraser had finally finished digging the Splinters out of his face and was really angry. He ran at me and rammed me into the wall, the impact winding me. I was pinned by the Eraser and couldn't move my arms legs or wings. This one was smarter than the other and he grinned at me maliciously. I head butted him in the face, hearing the satisfying crunch as the cartilage in his nose broke, but he didn't let me go. I felt the prick in my neck as my mother injected the cure, felt it sweep through my body like someone had filled my veins with liquid fire, I wasn't lucky enough to bear it and passed out. But not before seeing the sorrow on my mothers face it had come to this, nor the words on her lips

"I'm sorry," She whispered before leaving. The Eraser followed her, leaving me propped against the wall, slowly losing consciousness as the cure worked through my body, ridding me of the mutation I had lived my life with. I had just lost my biggest ticket out of here. I had just lost my foresight…


	15. Chapter 27 & 28

_**Chapter 27**_

"How long are you going to wait?" I heard whispers nearby, "He's been out for three days. I don't know if he will ever wake up."

"I'll wait one more day," A girl's voice replied, "Then we'll go. We can't stay here any longer than we have. Not with what they plan on doing. But Nathan's lost his foresight ability. It will be harder to plan now."

"Laura," The first voice responded, "If Nathan hasn't woken up by sundown, then we have to leave him here, understand?"

"Alright, Dean," Laura replied, "If he hasn't woken up by sundown, we continue with the plan, using the notes Nathan had. He told me where to find them."

An image flashed before my face, a small scene that showed Erasers surrounding Laura and Dean, they had escaped from this place, only to be caught. But that hadn't happened yet, had it? My eyes flew open. I felt Laura's hand in my own and looked down at it. Dean saw the movement and nodded towards me. Laura saw I was awake and let go.

"If you plan on using the forest as an escape route," I replied hoarsely, "make sure you aren't detected until you are at least two miles away from here. By the way what color are my eyes?"

"They're blue," Dean replied, "they have a faint purple tinge to them, but they are blue."

"I guess the cure worked," I replied, "just not the way my mother wanted it to."

They both smiled at my attempt at humor. I slowly sat up on the bed, feeling the pain, but ignoring it. I got up and stretched until my limbs were loose and I was able to walk around without any soreness. Then I walked over to the window and looked out.

"You planning on escaping tonight?" I asked them, "How come?"

"I found out what they plan on doing," Dean replied, "They were going to let you escape, after planting tracking devices in you. They might already be there. But they wanted you to lead them to Keira. They want her back. She holds information that is vital to their plans for our kind. If the world finds out about that information, we're screwed."

"Can you fly well?" I asked, "Can you fly fast and far in a short amount of time?"

"Yeah," Both of them replied at the same time.

Why?" Laura asked me.

"During my Flying lesson about three or four days ago," I replied, "According to how long I've been out, I was able to spot a cave high up in the mountain. We can hide out there for a while. The only way in is by flying."

Dean and Laura nodded. They understood my thinking. Darn it, I was already falling into the life too well. I should be a shivering wreck sitting in some padded cell somewhere. But my dreams had shown me things worse than this, so maybe that's why I was able to accept this so well.

"We'll do the escape as it happens," I told them, "There is no time to plan. I'll try and figure out if there are any tracking devices planted in us."

"How?" Dean asked me.

"I can see through time in both directions," I replied, "Not just one. I'll be able to search the past. I haven't done it often, butit's there.If I'm guessing correctly, what my mothers done to me, has helped me focus the stream of things through time."

I didn't have time to ponder this. The clock next to me bed began to chime, saying we had our afternoon training session to attend. This was going to be fun…

_**Chapter 28**_

A whitecoat stood in the middle of the room, clipboard in hand. We were in one of the larger gyms which meant this wasn't going to be pleasant, the only good news was, Laura had been allowed to join our class, it seemed they were finished with examining her. I leaned against the wall and wondered what they had in store for us. You're probably thinking why not use my ability? I don't use it for petty things I'm about to find out unless it's a life or death situation. They wanted us left alive, so why bother?

"Alright," The whitecoat said abruptly, making everyone shut up, "This is a test to see which of you are gifted and which aren't. We have given the Erasers orders to kill you. So unless you want to end up dead, knock them out, or use your abilities on them."

Then again, I had been wrong before. By the looks they actually wanted to see who was strong and who was too weak to keep alive, natural selection. It was survival of the fittest. Glad to see even they stick to the rules of nature. There weren't many people in the room though, about five others like Me, Laura and Dean, all avian kids. A whistle sounded and we all turned our heads as eight Erasers came charging through the doors, fully morphed and ready to tear our throats out. Some of the avian kids let out screams, other stood in shock, but I didn't. Laura and Dean moved along with me and we attacked the first Erasers the came our way. Guess who I got? Old Splinter face, the Eraser that I had broke the small table across. His facewas filledwith stitches from the splinters. I got to say, seeing all those stitches in his face, even in his wolf form, made him look a heck of a lot better.

After seeing us attack the Erasers some of the other kids stopped screaming and started moving. They attacked the Erasers and soon feathers and fur were flying and I mean literally. These kids were younger than us, about fourteen through to sixteen, but man, were they little savages when they needed to be. Splinter face snarled at me as I collided with him, lashing out with his claws, but I saw it coming and blocked it, getting three slash marks across my forearm. I kicked him in the stomach, winding him and then shoved both feet under him and launched him into the wall, this time creating an imprint of the Eraser on the wall. The first time I fought an Eraser back at the house, I was surprised that I could launch one into the wall, man they are heavy. Could have been the adrenaline or something I don't know.

"Duck!" I heard one of the kids shout and hit the ground. A fireball went flying over my head and hit another Eraser that was running at me from the side. He let loose a howl of pain as the fireball connected and burnt him. Man burning flesh and fur stink like heck. Well we had now found out there was a pyrokinetic in the house. Things were looking to get a little heated, pun intended. Splinter face had managed to free himself from the wall and was charging at me again. I quickly sidestepped and gave him a roundhouse kick into the face. I heard a scream and turned to see a girl about to have an Eraser tear out her throat. I was too far away, I couldn't help her.

I flung out my arm as I lungedto try, to at least try, and save her and I saw something move in the corner of my vision. Darkness was swarming down my outstretched hand and curling around like a serpent. It coiled around my arm and then struck out at the Erasers holding the girl down. It twisted around him and slowly began to squeeze him like a snake would. I jerked my arm and the coil of darkness followed jerking the Eraser off her and into a wall, well should I say through the wall.

I lost focus as a sharp pain dug into my back. The coil of darkness disappeared. Splinter face had leapt on me and sunk his fangs into my shoulder, making it almost useless. I punched his snout and stunned him, causing him to let go, then twisted around. My right arm was numb from the bite. I only had my left arm. The Eraser recovered and pounced at me, this time I focused and found nothing came from my arm, but darted out of the shadows in the corner, a small fast shape that look almost like a panther. It collided with the Eraser and knocked it away from me. I used the time to look around.

I was one of the only three left fighting. Two avian kids were badly wounded but would live. A third was lying on the ground out cold or dead, I didn't know. Two more were still fighting. Pyro kid was helping the others out and I noticed one was controlling the air around him, making it more lethal than air should ever be. Laura and Dean were holding off, dean using his Telepathy to keep the Eraser confused, Laura didn't seem to have a scratch on her, but had used no powers from what I could see. I switched my attention back to Splinter face and caught him as he pounced at me, I had not time to dodge and went to strike his chest to stop his jump, and ended up sticking a blade of solid darkness though the Erasers ribs and into his heart. I felt the beat through the blade as the heart slowly stopped pumping and the Eraser died. People say Revenge is sweet; I say it's bitter and useless, especially when you kill someone who can't control their animal instincts…


	16. Chapter 29 & 30

_**Chapter 29**_

Out of the entire training session, only one Eraser was killed and that was the one I killed, the rest had either serious burns from the pyrokinetic or they were out cold from other injuries. All the avian kids survived, although one had serious bite marks on their shoulder, a bit close to the neck but they would survive. We were all dismissed after the lesson, those with injuries being carried out to the infirmary. But I had other plans.

We had waited until nightfall, when most of the people were going to sleep and there were fewer people around for us to bump into. As we had decided earlier, we were escaping at sunset, well it was well after sunset; it was full dark. I crept out of my room and walked down the corridor until I was outside of Laura's room where I tapped the door twice and continued on to Dean's room, repeating the same action on his door. Both were awake and waiting and soon we were ready to get moving. I had packed all I needed from my room in a small backpack I had adjusted for my wings. It was uncomfortable but bearable to use. It contained some food clothing and some cash incase we needed it, I suspected we would.

The hallway was empty, but according to my watch a guard would be coming to do his rounds in about five minutes. We had five minutes to get out of here. Dean led the way down corridor after corridor, knowing where to go to the entrance to the escape route he had prepared for everyone else to escape by. I stayed alert, watching what to do and what not do, letting the visions pass through me, but in a background noise sort of way, trying to stay quite and unnoticed.

Dean led us to the laundry room and then out back to where the laundry was collected and washed, dried and folded. I saw where he was leading us, to the laundry chute that was used to dump torn and useless clothing. That was the escape route. I was beginning to think it was too easy and as usual I was right. A vision flashed before me and I grabbed Dean to stop him. Erasers were waiting around the corner of the hallway where the chute was located. I relayed this to Dean so he could understand the change of plan. It was already too late to turn back; I could sense the Eraser that had moved in behind us, they knew we were here. I could only see one thing to do, but wasn't sure I could do it. After all my new powers were fairly new. I grabbed both Dean and Laura and began to focus on wrapping the darkness around us, covering us in a blanket so that it would protect us and keep us concealed from the Erasers. We slowly moved down the corridor, keeping out breathing steady and low so the Erasers wouldn't pick up on it. We reached the hallway and I swear we passed an Eraser so close that I'm surprised he didn't smell us, let alone hear our breathing. I could have counted the hairs on his nose. They were fully morphed and waiting, but they were oblivious to what was passing them right now.

After a few agonizing minutes that felt like hours, we were at the chute, but how to open it without the Eraser hearing? Answer, we couldn't, so we'd have to do this fast. All of us tucked out wings in close to our bodies and prepared to go down the chute, once outside we would flare our wings and I would lead them to the cave. Dean didn't open the chute slowly and carefully, we jammed it open fast so the Erasers would be caught off guard. I ordered Laura to go first followed by Dean. The first Eraser were already realizing what was going on, but by then I was already halfway down the chute. An Eraser tried to follow us, but got stuck in the chute, snapping and snarling at us as it lost it's prey.

We hit the open air and I spread my wings, soaking in the feeling of flying. It was wonderful, beautiful and I could lose myself for day in the sensation of having the wind ruffle my feathers, flowing through them and I flapped my wings up and down in a steady rhythm to stay airborne. But tonight I was too preoccupied by our escape I didn't pay attention to it. Flying at an average pace to space ourselves, we arrived at the cave a little after midnight. I swooped in and landed on the cave floor, Dean and Laura following. Now was the chore of finding the chips they could have put in us.

I sat down and focused on the parts in my past of where there was a blank spot since arriving there. I watched those parts of my life get filled in, and then saw the injection into my arm, just before the wrist, where they had stuck it in. I snapped out of the vision and looked closely at my arm, seeing a faint mark where the tracker had gone in. I looked closely and Laura and Dean's wrist to notice they had the same marks, although faded a bit from being there longer. I pointed it out to Dean and Laura and they agreed we needed to remove them.

"But how to do remove them without harming ourselves too much?" Dean asked me, "I mean we'd be passing to close to major veins and arteries in the wrist to risk it."

"But Laura can take care of that," I replied, looking at her, "Can't you Laura?"

"Yeah," She replied, "I can. How did you know?"

"During the fight yesterday I saw you get scratched at least once," I replied, "but when I checked a moment later, you had no wounds, so I guessed, you can heal people, well at least yourself. Think you can heal us?"

"I can try," She replied uncertainly, "I don't know if I can or not. I've never tried it on anyone else."

"All we can do is try," Dean replied, "Who's with me?"

We all agreed to give it a go, if Laura couldn't heal us, at least we'd die free, not stuck in that nightmare of a place where we were forced to fight just to survive…

**_Chapter 30_**

The darkness whispers to me in my sleep. Sounds like I'm going insane. Maybe I am, but ever since that fight in the training room yesterday, I've heard whispers, faintly at first, but now they are stronger. It's like I can sense the darkness, can communicate with it, heck I was having dreams where I was looking out through the darkness, like I was part of it.

We had finally figured out how to remove the trackers implanted in our wrist. It was risky enough with them being implanted in our wrist, let alone me using my new found ability to cut them out. None of us had bothered backing any knifes or guns or any weapons come to think of it, so I had to use my new and unstable power. I don't even want to think about what could have happened. I used a very sharp knife made of the darkness and cut them out, Laura healed us. It turns out she could, although it took some practice the first time, I have the scar on my wrist to prove it. Hey we might heal fast, but I had to dig deep and no-one was willing to go first.

It was just before sunrise and I was sitting in the cave entrance. I couldn't sleep, not with all the whispers, so I sat and tried to figure out a way I could block them out without hindering my abilities. So far I had nothing but a major headache. I sensed movement in the cave and turned around to see Dean had awoken. Laura was still asleep, the healing seemed to take a bit out of her, and so I had let her sleep. Dean came up and sat beside me. We sat there as the sun rose and the darkness of our cave was partially illuminated by the light. There was a small rock outcrop that was curved up in front of the cave that hid the entrance from those not looking closely. After a while Dean spoke.

"What are we going to do now?" He asked.

"I don't know," I replied, "This is a first for me. I suppose there is only one thing to do. Find Keira and protect her from the Erasers. They want her back because she has something they fear. Maybe we can use that to our advantage, make them leave us alone."

"What about Laura?" he asked, "I knew here before she disappeared. She always used her head, hardly any emotion showed through. Sure she felt pain, hunger and thirst, but that's about all I can tell you. She used to be kind once, before they got to her."

"You care for her, don't you?" I asked, "You care for her more than a friend, but you're afraid to tell her how you feel. I'll give you a tip though, if you do decide to tell her, not right now. She's an emotional wreck, the conditioning they gave her made her block out her emotions for years, she's just beginning to feel them again, getting used to them. Let her adjust."

"You care for her too?" Dean asked me, "As in more than a friend?"

"Possibly," I replied truthfully, "My life has been a mess the past week or so. My sister died, my mother works as a whitecoat alongside my father, who I though was dead for three years. Not to mention my brother is now an Eraser who I'm not sure can remember me. My emotions are probably in the same state as Laura's, I just don't think about it that much. I'll let you know when I figure the answer out. You might have some friendly competition."

"It'd be too easy if we got thing we wanted," Dean said, "It's fun to fight for something or someone you like, shows you are worthy of having that something or someone. I just hope we don't fight each other and it ends up ruining our friendship."

"Oh I doubt that," I replied smiling, "I just got a tip from the future. I don't know who wins, but it won't ruin our friendship. But let's agree on something, no using our powers to win her over. Make it a fair fight and let her decide if she like one of us or neither of us."

"Agreed," Dean replied.

We sat on the cave floor by the entrance for a while. I leaned my back against the wall so I could see both inside and outside. Laura lay asleep wings wrapped around her, her face shrouded by her golden hair, but still just visible behind it. I knew she liked to but on a big brave face, although it cost her to do so, but there was all the emotional confusion she was going through, I could see it whenever I saw her eyes. She was always acting so strong so people wouldn't notice the frail, confused girl, the kind girl she used to be before everything happened. I think it was the glimpse I had of that girl in her now that sealed the deal. I think I had fallen for her, perhaps even when I first met her. I gave up my old life for her. Yep I have definitely fallen for her, and have fallen very hard.


	17. Chapter 31 & 32

_**Chapter 31**_

We flew from the cave soon after sunrise, scattering the tracking devices in three directions to confuse anyone trying to follow us, letting them think we had gone separate ways. I searched my visions to see if there were any others they might have planted on us, but there were none. They didn't seem to think we would find the first ones, or if we did, they never expected us to risk getting them out.

We wandered aimlessly through the skies, no longer sure where to go or what to do. We couldn't enter normal society, not ever again. I mean, come on it's a bit hard to hide the fact that we aren't normal, no-ones going to miss the pair of wings we have on our backs, or the fact we heal a lot faster than normal. We had nowhere to go, but anywhere was safer and far better than Haven.

I coasted on the air waves and the thermals rising from the ground below. For those who don't know, thermals are bubbles of warm air that rise from the warmed ground below. Birds use them to gain altitude without flapping their wings, worked the same way for us. The gentle northerly breeze flowed over me and through my flight feathers. I let it blow over me as I coasted along, just following an instinct to head south. It was after a few hours of flying that I began to recognize the land below us. It was the forest near my school; I was back in my hometown.

I flew further, following the track I used to walk home everyday from school towards my house, towards where I had lived for most of my life, the only place I had left to go and even now, I could never come back here, it's what they expect, that I would return to what I know. We couldn't stay here long. I landed in the backyard, out of sight of the houses in the neighborhood and walked to the back door. The house was lock, all signs of the fight a week ago, fixed. They had covered everything up well; no signs showed that there was ever a fight. I tried the back door but it was locked, the key was not in it's usual hiding spot in the pot plant next to the door, my mother must have moved it.

I turned the handle and applied a bit of force to the door. The doorway began to creak and groan. There was a crunch of splintering wood and the door gave. I walked inside through to the kitchen and dumped my bag on the table.

"Grab a bag from by the door," I ordered, "Empty it out and fill it up with food, drink, spare clothing, medical supplies and anything else that will be needed. We can't stay here long."

"Why not?" Dean asked, "It looks like no-ones been home in weeks, we'd be safe here, wouldn't we?"

"No," I replied, "We won't. This used to be my family's house. I used to live here. They would be searching for us now they realize we were on to them. They want us back. The first place they would check is places I'm familiar with, this house for starters. Laura can you pack some food, I'll get some things from upstairs, some of my sister clothing should fit you, there are some medical supplies in the upstairs bathroom, I'll get those while I'm up there."

"Ok," Laura replied, "We'll keep an eye out while we're here though. I don't fancy being attacked again. Don't take too long."

I nodded and headed upstairs. I moved to the bathroom first to gather the first aid kit and other medical supplies we might need. Once I had them I walked down the hallway and into Danielle's room. It looked the same as we had left it, bringing back old memories I would have liked to keep buried, but couldn't. Tears began to fall down my face as I silently cried for her, not able to help myself. I missed her so much, I missed both Danielle and Jake so much, but they were out of my reach now. All thanks to my parents, both of them. I gathered the clothing quickly, not looking at what I picked up, wanting to spend the least amount of time in her room, to get away from the pain of her loss. I was about to walk out when I saw her favorite necklace lying on her dresser. It was a hawk, wings outstretched frozen in mid flight. The wings were filled with Topazes and Diamonds for the feather colors, ruby for the ends of the tail feathers and amber for the eyes. It was meant to be a red-tailed hawk; I had bought it for Danielle on her sixteenth birthday. It had cost me a fortune to have it hand made. About two thousand dollars at least. I had raised the money for it by taking odd jobs here and there collecting the money so I could pay for it. Danielle had loved it.

I took it off the dresser and tied it around my neck to remember her by. It hung over my heart, the cold platinum and gold shape the stones were set in easing the pain I felt there. I walked back downstairs and dumped the clothing on the sofa in the lounge next to the kitchen. Laura and Dean walked in carrying the bags full of food drinks and first aid kits. They saw the damp trials on my face but didn't comment on them. That earned them a few good marks in my books. I hate people who always ask are you're alright just after you finish crying. Of course the answer would be no. I wiped my face to dry the trails and pointed to the pile of clothing,

"Sort through that," I said to Laura, "There should be clothing in there for you to wear. You're welcome to change into something clean. I think we all need to. There are two showers if anyone feels like one. The downstairs bathroom is down the hall third door on the right. Upstairs bedroom is shared between my room and Danielle's. I know we said not to stay here long, but one night should be alright. All of us are tired and it's near dark already."

We all agreed upon it, too tired and hungry to argue although we had a small argument on whether to use the lights after dark or not. We agreed not to, so people wouldn't know anyone was home. We preferred it that way. Danielle used the upstairs bathroom and Dean used the downstairs one. I started cooking some food for them and once Dean was out of the shower I got in and let the water run over my wing, loving the feel as the water beaded and fell down through my feathers. The hot water helped me relax muscles that I hadn't realized were tense and left me feeling like dead weight. Once I was finished I got dressed and returned to the kitchen. I was so tired but managed to scoff down at least three helpings of the food Dean and I had cooked before we curled up in the living room next to the fireplace. We all agreed to start a small fire, it was cold tonight.

I was awoken in the morning by the weight of a booted foot on my chest, too heavy to be human and looked up to see a familiar face smiling down at me. It was Jake…

_**Chapter 32**_

"Hello Bird-boy," Jake snarled at me, shoving his boot further into my chest, "I'm curious as to how you got into my home? How did you even know where my home was? I thought I could get away from your kind here, and yet here you are."

Jake grinded his boot further into my chest, making it hard to breathe properly. I tried to shift out from under his weight, but the more I struggled, the heavier his foot got.

"You don't remember me, do you?" I asked Jake. "Man it's pathetic how they control you Jake, making sure you can't remember your past."

"Don't toy with me bird-boy," Jake warned, "I can remember my past well, up until you're fugitive little behind got my sister killed."

"My little behind?" I said, laughing out loud, although it hurt to do so, "Man they have seriously messed with your head, Jake. I didn't kill her, our parents did. I'm your Brother, Jake. I tried to save her and now, I'm about to save your sorry behind before I do serious damage to you."

I had sensed the darkness' unrest at me being in danger and was seriously close to losing the restraint I had placed on it. I grabbed Jake's foot and twisted it, throwing his balance off centre and forced him to lift his foot off me. I darted out from under him quickly and tackled the Eraser holding Laura to the ground. I heard a crack and Saw that Dean had managed to distract his Eraser and had cracked its head on the mantle of the fireplace. I saw a bruise on Laura's face and guessed an Eraser had hit her to shut her up. I felt something deep down in me awaken, some force of pure power, like a beast within. I wanted to hurt the person who had done that to her, I wanted to protect her. I shoved the urge aside, now was not the time to worry about that.

I ducked through the doorway into the hall, pulling Laura along behind me and Dean following at the rear. I heard Howls of anger and frustration coming from the lounge as Jake and his flunkies recovered and moved swiftly through the house Picking up the bags we had left beside the door, we slammed our way through the door, the hinges pulling out the door frame as we bashed it open. I grabbed Laura's hand, gave her a bag and then gave her a hand in taking off. Dean lifted off after her and I spread my wings to follow, only to have a wolf collide with my back as he charged me down. I recognized the unnatural dirty blonde hair that covered the wolf as Jake's hair.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you, liar," Jake growled into my face, human words coming out his wolf throat, "You were the one who tore my family apart."

"First off," I replied, kneeing Jake in the stomach and winding him, "I didn't tear our family apart. Our parents did with their experiments to make us what we are now. So go ask them about that, and secondly…" I punched his jaw to stun him, "Secondly, I was the one who took care of the family, the one who cooked all our meals, cleaned your wounds, the one who took you to the doctors when you were sick. I was the one who kept our family from falling apart because Mum was never there and Dad faked his own death three years ago. So don't you dare say I was the one who tore our family apart. Don't. You. Dare"

With each of the last words I said, I punch Jake. Once in the chest, once in the stomach and once on his nose, freeing myself from him and I launched myself in the air out of his reach. As I caught up with Dean and Laura I looked back and stared at the hatred in Jake's eyes. They had turned him into a monster. I was turning back when a group of shadows launched form the trees, claws out and wings beating. Wait claws and wings? They were holding back on us, it looks like they had the flying Erasers held in reserve all along. If I ever get my chance at revenge, now the payback has been doubled. The Flying Erasers were going to be upon us soon, but I noticed they were like flying tanks. Sure they could fly, but they weren't exactly agile in the air.

They were getting bolder in their attacks to get us back. They sun was just beginning to rise above the horizon and light up the world. People would be getting up for their normal lives. And right in the middle of it, three flying teenagers with wings fighting with a group of flying wolves with wings. I wonder how badly they wanted to finish this fight. I didn't get to answer that question, a jet of fire flew out through the air between the Erasers and us, stopping them dead in their tracks. The Erasers snarled at us, but decided to back off, they didn't want this continuing in broad daylight.

I landed in the trees that we were flying over. We were still in the suburbs of town, but we would be safe here. It was a park. There were plenty of trees to hide us. I landed on a branch and turned to face the stranger that had just prevented a full out aerial battle happening. I recognized her, she was the Pyro from back in Haven. How did she escape?

"Hey," She said, "I'm Sophia. I'm a Pyro if you can't guess."

"I know you," Laura replied, "We all do. We saw you during that training session in Haven. How'd you escape?"

Well," Sophia began, "after you kind of caused a bit of a stir at Haven, a few of the others decided to take you as an example and escape. We weren't so subtle with our escape, blowing a hole in the wall and all, but we got out."

I looked at Dean and he looked back at me, we both understood what the other was thinking. If they had escaped, did they also have tracking devices in their wrists?

"Sophia," I said, "Let me see your wrist."

"Why?" She asked, suspicious of us.

"Because they might be tracking you with a chip implanted in your wrist." I replied, "Laura, Dean and I had to cut ours out. Laura here can heal people, so it was fine. But we have no sharp objects to cut it out."

"How did you get it out in the first place then?" Sophia asked me.

I held up my hand and let her see the darkness swirling around it like a serpent until it formed into a dagger, one with a fine point. She saw the cut mark on my wrist where I had cut mine out, but Laura hadn't fully healed it properly.

"Let's just say, I'm a darkinetic." I explained, "I can control darkness with my mind. I think it'll be useful having a Pyro with us. That's if you want to come along with us. If so, we can't leave the chip in. If not, thanks for saving our lives, but we have to go soon."

Sophia looked at each of us in turn, to see that we are not bluffing then looked back into my eyes. She must have trusted what she saw because then she nodded her head.

"Fine," She replied, "I've just never liked pain much."

"Welcome to the club," I replied, smiling, "I doubt anyone short of psychotic would love to be in pain. Now I won't lie, it will hurt quite a bit until the chip is out, but once it's out, Laura can heal you good as new."

"Just get it over with," Sophia replied. I could see she wasn't looking forward to it, but she was determined, "I never want to go back there again. Remove it before I lose my nerve."


	18. Chapter 33 & 34

_**Chapter 33**_

During the entire removal of the chip, Cassandra never made a noise, but she did turn a bit white. While Laura healed her up I finally got a good look at her. She looked to be around the age of sixteen or seventeen, had long waist length chocolate brown hair with streaks of blond through it. Her eyes were a bright green color, almost as green as a cats and I wondered if they were natural or if it was a side-effect. Her wings were white and grey, reminding me of an owl's wings. She was fit, athletic and agile, and easy to get along with, but she had a tendency to like blowing things up, or burning things, which made us a little cautious of her.

"You an orphan?" Dean asked, "Or one of the missing?"

"Missing," Cassandra answered, "I was kidnapped when I was five, been living in Haven since. I can't remember my family much, but I know they were told I was killed in an accident. They told my parents I was hit by a crazy driver waiting for them outside school."

"They're good at that," I replied softly, "My father faked his own death and made me believe for three years he was dead when all along he was running Haven. I don't have parents anymore, they both work at Haven and I don't want to know them."

We were still sitting in the trees where we had escaped to. We had decided to have something to eat before we went flying, all the while trying to figure out where to go next. We had filled in Cassandra on what we knew, about Keira and why they wanted her back. She agreed that we all needed to find the others and get them to help. Keira and her flock needed to be protected from those at Haven, at all cost. That's about all I knew. I had no idea where she was or how to find her. I was at a complete loss as to what to do.

"If I'm guessing correctly," I said after a while, "The best chance we have at finding the others that escaped, is to get something that can follow them. They have to be found and have the chips removed, before the Erasers recapture them."

"I think I can find something," Laura said, "But that's means we'll have to take on some Erasers to get it. They carry with them a small device that allows them to pick up on the signals from the chips and follow them."

I smiled at Laura when she said that, we were going to do a little wolf hunting. It was about time that the tables were turned because quite frankly, I'm sick of running from them, they should be running from us. Laura saw me smiling…

"I know that smile, Nathan," she said, "I don't like it. What evil little though is running through your head right now?"

"Who said it had to be an evil thought?" I replied back.

"Because that smile is always followed by either an evil or a nasty thought," Laura replied, "which in my opinion are the same thing."

"And since when have I had an evil or a nasty thought?" I exclaimed.

"Let me see…" She replied, "When you shot that Eraser in the chest, that's one. Two, I heard you were smiling when they escorted you out of the fight with the Erasers, people thought you'd lost it, and three, you were smiling like that when you came out the laundry chute, I know an Eraser got stuck in there, I could hear it. You deliberately held back to entice him, didn't you?"

"Maybe," I replied, my smile still on my face, "I was just thinking how ironic it is, that we are always running away from the Erasers and now we're planning on deliberately seeking them out and attacking them. It's about time someone turned the tables."

"Are you sure it's the only way?" Cass asked, "I mean is there a safer way? I don't have full control of my ability yet and I don't want to cause a major accident."

"I can't see any other way to re-group the others," Laura replied, "The only way I've come across tracking them is the small devices that The Erasers carry, or the main computer back at Haven."

"Then let's find the nearest Eraser patrol," I said, "Time we got to have a little fun."

I watched Cass out the corner of me eye, something wasn't right about her. Most people would love to have a go at Erasers. Sure we didn't really want to go and deliberately seek them out to fight them, but she just seemed a little too nervous around us…

_**Chapter 34**_

"You see them?" Laura asked me, "Over there across the road from the park near the black van?"

"Yeah, I see them," I replied, "The male models just sitting around. And it's a bit hard to not notice my brother sitting with them. Where are Dean and Cass? They should be in place already."

I grew silent as I saw figures walking towards the van. Both of them were winged kids, one of them was Dean, the other Cass. We watched them approach not sure what was going on, this was not part of the plan. Then I knew. Cass kicked Dean's knees out from behind him and he dropped to the ground revealing the hands tied behind his back. She was a double agent, one of the winged kids working with the Erasers. I knew something wasn't right about her. I knew it. We had to do something to free Dean, but something caught our attention. Cass was gesturing wildly at the park, getting into a heated discussion. They seemed to be arguing about the fact she only came back with one of us and not all three of us. The Eraser suddenly lashed out and backhanded Cass across the face, slamming her into the van. Cass recovered and lashed back at the Eraser who struck her, leaving an imprint of her hand burnt onto his cheek as flames covered her hand. Things were definitely getting heated.

"We need to get Dean out of there," I said, "By the looks the deal Cass had with the Erasers hadn't gone well. I'll fight the Erasers, create a distraction, you free Dean. If Cass tries to stop you, don't hold back, she betrayed us to them, if she does nothing, leave her."

Laura nodded and we went separate ways. I was heading towards the front of the van; Laura was heading to the back of the van. The Erasers saw me first, but they didn't see the panther that had formed out of the darkness of the trees and stalk them until it pounced on the first one. It seemed I could shape the darkness into pretty much anything, but I had to make sure I didn't lose control. I launched myself at the second Eraser, using my wings to give me speed and hammered a fist into his back and sending him flying into the van's windscreen. Jake came rushing around to see what was going on and recognized me.

My mind was split, half controlling the panther, the other half focusing on Jake; I couldn't use my premonition without releasing control of the shadow panther. He launched himself at me while I was distracted and knocked me to the ground. A fist came flying at my head and I had to roll to avoid the hit. It left a small crater in the ground. I kicked Jake in the ribs and threw him into the bush as Laura freed Dean from the ties. She rushed over to an unconscious Eraser and grabbed a small device from it belt and then was airborne with Dean in tow. I turned around and gave Jake once last kick to the head, hoping to knock some sense into him, if not replace some of his old memory.

We kept flying long after the fight. We needed to get away from the area before reinforcements arrived. It was near sunset when we finally agreed to pack it in and rest. All of us had only eaten once today and we were hungry and very tired. I spotted a motel ahead on a road below us and pointed it out. Dean shook his head and pointed at our wings. I shook my head, showed him the money and shook my head. We weren't going to pay, just borrow a room without permission for the night, until we got something to hide our wings. Dean nodded, to show he understood and we dove for the trees behind the place. We snuck up to a room on the far end, away from everything. One people wouldn't rent often I pried the door open; careful to make sure I didn't damage it.

The room was a small single room with a double bed. There was a bathroom and a TV in there and some other pieces of furniture, but that was it. Other than the furniture it was pretty barren, pale off-white colored walls and ceiling that were cracked in places, one single dresser that the TV sat on and a bedside table on either side of the bed.

"I'm taking a shower," Laura said, "I smell like Eraser breath and I got some blood on me I need to wash off."

"Ok," I replied, I'll get something ready to eat then."

"Who sleeps on the bed?" Dean asked, "One of us will have to sleep on the floor or in the chair in the corner. We need to decide. Laura should be one to sleep on the bed, she needs to be guarded."

"Yeah," I replied, "You can be the other one on the bed, I don't mind."

_I don't want to look too eager,_ I thought, smiling to myself, but guarded my thoughts from Dean. I'd learnt how to do that from being with him, that there were certain things I could do that would prevent him from reading my mind. I unpacked some food and a small camping stove to cook the raw food on. Thankfully the room didn't have a smoke alarm. Laura came out the bathroom her hair darkened by the water, but still golden and lovely, I couldn't help but watch her each time I looked at her my heart beat faster, I just wanted to touch her skin, feel how soft it was. I shook my head and returned my focus on cooking the food while Dean had a shower.

"What's with the necklace?" Laura asked me, "You weren't wearing it before we left your place. Is it special?"

"It was Danielle's," I replied, "A sixteenth birthday gift. Cost me two grand to have custom made, but it was worth it. Now I wear it to remember her by, remember why I'm out here, doing this. Because I made a promise to her, to not let the whitecoats rule over me and to be free."

"It's beautiful," She said, "Danielle was lucky to have you as a brother."

"Thanks," I replied, hiding my face from Laura as a tear fell down my face. Thankfully I didn't have to hide it long as we heard Dean yell in the bathroom.

"Hey!" He shouted, "There's no more hot water!"


	19. Chapter 35 & 36

_**Chapter 35**_

A smile spread across our faces and soon we were laughing, although Dean didn't find it quite as amusing as we did.

"You're having a shower after me right?" Dean asked, "That means you'll be having the cold water as well, so don't laugh."

"Yeah," I replied, "But there is a difference… I don't mind cold showers."

Laura and I cracked up again as Dean returned muttering to the bathroom. I could have sworn he said something about us being insane. I suppose it was the nerves wearing off. All of us were emotionally exhausted from our ordeal with planning an attack against an Eraser patrol. Birds don't go hunting wolves; it goes against nature, so why did we do it? To protect our kind, that's why. A knock at the door had us instantly quiet and alert. No-one knew we were here, so who was it outside the door? I slipped silently over to the wall next to the door, a pistol forming in my hand. I know not bright, I never had tried making a gun out of Darkness, didn't even know if it would work or not, but whoever was at the door wouldn't know that.

I slipped to the door. It had started raining lightly outside since we arrived, but now it was starting to fall faster, more heavily. I could hear it on the roof now. My hand reached for the door handle, the gun held in my right hand pointing up towards the roof. I turned the handle of the door, expecting a blow to slam it inwards, but nothing came. I swung the door open and bought the gun up to bear on a familiar face… It was Cass. I didn't lower the weapon until I was sure she was alone and hadn't been followed. I spread the darkness around the building out into the bushes like a mist to search for any watcher, but had come up with nothing. She was alone.

"What do you want, Cass?" I asked, "And be thankful I asked that question. There are other things I could have done."

"Like kill me?" She asked back, "I wouldn't blame you if you did. It probably would be best, but before you decide, please let me explain why. Will you let me do that?"

I looked at Laura, and just picked up on the barest movement of her head. She nodded. Dean stood in the bathroom doorway, clothed thankfully, but keeping an eye out for trouble, or should I say a mind out for trouble. His eyes were closed, but I could tell he was keeping his mind blank so he would pick up on anyone coming our way. After a while I nodded.

"Go ahead," I replied, "we're listening."

"First, you need to know I have a brother," Cass said, "He was kept at Haven with us. Andrew made me an offer soon after you left, that if I can bring you back, he would let my brother and I go free, no Eraser hunting us, so long as we made sure the world didn't find out about us. He let us escape, although blowing up the wall wasn't the way he expected, he let us go, the other experiments could be rounded up, although he wasn't happy about it. My brother is being held hostage by the friends of the team you attacked. Nathan, I know Jake is your brother, I heard your conversation in the house; I was outside at the time."

"Jake has made some new family members in the pack," Cass continued, "The team that's holding my brother hostage; Jake considers one or two of them his brothers. They are a group of the flying Erasers. All I know is that I have to bring all three of you back in and they would let me and my brother go free. I guess after the conversation we had when we first met, about why you were on the loose kind of unnerved me. I wanted to get it over before the doubts I had made me want to back out, so I knocked Dean out and tied him up, but he regained consciousness when I was carrying him back. The Erasers weren't happy that I only brought back one and that's when they hit me. No doubt you saw the fight."

"Anything else?" I asked her, not showing whether I believed the story or not, "Is there anything you might have left out?"

Cass shook her head. I indicated to the others that we should talk out of earshot and lead them to the other side of the room to whisper. She wouldn't be able to pick up on it if we whispered so even we could barely hear it.

"What do you think, Dean?" I asked him, "Telling the truth?"

"Its hard to tell," Dean replied, "There's too much emotion to read her properly, but the basic story it true, they are holding her brother captive and your father did offer a deal to get you back."

"I say we keep her here," Laura said, "With us, but keep an eye on her. She lost our trust when she betrayed us; she'll have a hard time gaining it again."

"Agreed," I replied, "Now we better get some sleep if we want to find any of the escapees before they all get caught and returned to Haven."

We went back and Laura lay on the bed, but lay there staring at the ceiling. Dean lay down on the bed next to her and fell asleep. I walked over to Cass and told her that we believed her, that somehow we would get her brother back. She nodded, but she knew there was a catch, she wasn't dumb. She curled up on the chair and went to sleep, leaving me to sleep on the floor. I didn't mind, that's another flaw of mine, I care more about other people's safety and survival more than my own. Soon I was drifting off to sleep as well, not realizing how tired I really was until the darkness of sleep engulfed me, making me feel comfortable.

_**Chapter 36**_

Laura lay awake on the bed. She couldn't get to sleep. Dean lay next to her on the bed, but she had made sure there was enough room between them. _Dean's a nice guy,_ She thought, _but he's a bit, how to put it… forward. Nathan likes to care for everyone before himself. That and he likes to make a challenge of everything, I have a hard time reading him, but man he's gorgeous. _Laura realized what she was thinking and quickly changed the subject of her thoughts, but no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts always turned back to his smile. It was a charming smile, full and sincere.

She closed her eyes to get some sleep, but couldn't. She was distracted. _What is wrong with me?_ She thought, _what is it that I'm feeling towards him? I never felt this way before, it's frustrating. _She turned onto her side and watched Nathan sleep on the floor next to the bed. She traced the lines of his lips, his eyes, the slight curls on the bangs of his hair, the small bits that hung framing his face. She couldn't help it, she just wanted to reach out and tuck the strand of hair behind his ear, but restrained her self.

_I'm infatuated with him,_ she thought, _He gave up so much of his life just to save mine. He still gives up parts of his old life to keep us safe. I wish I could just give something back. I…I think I love him, but I'm afraid to tell him, incase he doesn't feel the same way. _After a while of her mind chasing her thought round in a circle she fell asleep, only to dream something happening hundreds of miles away.

_She was running through the forest, leaves slapping at her face, branches whipping along her cheeks. A guy ran next to her, on her right, a girl on her left. There were two younger kids with wings running ahead of her, trying to lift off the ground, but the trees prevented them from gaining flight. She could hear the howling of the Eraser on her tail, she could feel the vibrations of their heavy weight crashing into the ground as they ran along, hunting their prey. She could feel the heat of warm breath on her neck and was afraid to turn around and take a look. She ran faster. _

_Light up ahead! She ran towards it, seeing the younger kids run into the clearing and lift off. The girl on her left spread her wings, the guy also spreading his. She spread her wings as they crashed through the trees into sunlight and launched themselves into the air. Eraser snapped at her, she could feel the hot breath as they tried to catch her, but missed. Soon they were out of reach of the Erasers. She looked back at the Eraser that had chased her, looked into its amber eyes, saw her reflection… _

"Laura," Nathan urged, calmly shaking her awake, "Laura wake up. You were thrashing about in your sleep."

"I was her," She replied, "I saw Keira. Eraser are chasing her. They get closer everyday to capturing her. We have to get moving soon. If we want to find her before they get her, we need all the help we can get."

"I agree there, Laura," Nathan said, "but we need to get moving fast. You sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine," She replied, then pointed out the window, "But they don't look happy to see us in this room. I think we outstayed our welcome."

Nathan looked out the window at what she saw. Three guys were walking towards the room they had stayed in overnight. Each guy had a sour look on his face and they were not happy they had freeloaders camping out in their motel. It was time to leave. Laura moved out the back door carrying her bag and followed Dean, Cass and Nathan into the trees as the men burst through the door into the room. _That was too close for comfort,_ she thought


	20. Chapter 37 & 38

_**Authiors Note: **Sorry it took so long to get this up guys. I've been busy with school assessments all week and part of last week, and tonight I had problems uploading the chaptes but here they are for you. I hope you enjoy._

_**Chapter 37**_

We had flown pretty fast away from the motel, incase police were bought onto the scene. We didn't want to be around to answer questions. Dean flew at the head of the flock, Laura up next to him with the device we stole to find the escapees. I felt a pang of jealousy she was flying next to Dean instead of me. It seemed they were growing stronger. the pangs of jealousy that is. Did I feel something other than a physical attraction to Laura? I don't know, but the more time I spend with her, the more confused I am and the stronger the beast inside me gets. For now I can control it, but I don't know what would happen if I lose control.

We stopped to have a small feed since we hadn't had any breakfast since we left the motel. Cass started up the fire and cooked the food. It looked like she was trying to make up for what happened earlier. I sat across from Laura at the fire, watching her through the flames letting the light play on her face and I realized my emotions went far deeper than just physical attraction. I was watching for her smile, you know, the one that could light up a room. I watched her hair spill around her shoulders, framing her face. I watched her sapphire blue eyes, but made sure she didn't see me watching.

"Nathan?" Cass asked sitting down beside me.

"Sorry," I replied, "Did you say something?"

"I said your attracted to her," Cass replied, "aren't you? I can tell by the way you watch her. You seem lost in your thoughts."

"Yeah," I said, "I'm attracted to her in many ways that just one. But it's so confusing the way she just seems unaware of it."

"Get her something she likes," Cass replied, "Trust me, I'm a girl, I should know. Leave a note, telling her something; let her guess who it is."

"Won't work," I replied, "Dean's also attracted to her. What if it goes wrong?"

"Only one way to figure it out," Cass replied, "right?"

She got up off the ground and began to collect more firewood to cook our lunch banquet. I can't believe I was actually listening to her, but it was an idea anyway. I began to focus on the darkness in the shade, seeing how far I could spread out, seeing if I could locate Keira. The information she had was what could free us, or condemn us. We had to find her first. The darkness spread out, but the light weakened it, fractured it. I could sense it, but it was distorted because of the light. Suddenly it was like hitting a brick wall. The darkness just stopped it couldn't go any further. It was like it had reached it limit. Nathan withdrew it back to him and let out a sigh.

"What's wrong?" Laura asked me from across the fire, "you got anything?"

"Nothing," I replied, "My darkness can only go a certain distance from me before it can go no further. Wherever Keira is, it's outside my range. Laura can you remember the detail of the dream, anything that might give away her location?"

"Wherever it is," Laura replied, "I have never been there. I don't recognize the forest, the mountains nothing."

"We need to find her," Dean replied, "And soon. Is there anything you can use? Anything at all?"

"Enough!" I ordered, "Dean she's already answered that. Leave her alone."

I was growing irritated each hour since Laura had mentioned it. Dean and Laura had filled me in on the basic outline of the information. Only what they knew. I'll put it in terms like this. If Keira is caught, we wouldn't be around anymore. Please take a ticket and step into line. Death is now taking number thirteen. If we managed to save her, we could be free, no more running, no more fighting. We could just live.

"There might be one more way," I replied, "Dean; can you relay her memories of the dream through yourself to me? Can you create a bridge between her mind and mine?"

_**Chapter 38**_

"I'm not letting you in there," Laura said, "You're not getting inside my mind. I have stuff no-one is to know up there."

"And you think we don't?" I replied. "Laura, the connection works both ways. Like a door. I can enter your mind, you can enter mine. All I'll be doing is getting the images from the dream. If you want, you can use the knowledge I got from school to learn, but we stay out of anything private. If someone wanders in there, imagine a door shutting."

"And how do you know so much about that?" Dean asked, "You aren't telepathic."

"No I'm not," I replied, "But I have to do similar things to stop from being driven insane by the constant noise I get from being aware of the darkness. So I learn a few tricks. Why do you think it's gotten so hard to read my mind Dean? You didn't think I stopped thinking, did you? Now all I want is an answer, can you make a bridge?"

"Theoretically," Dean replied, "Yes, I can make a bridge between minds. Actually doing it? This would be the first attempt. I can try, but I don't know what to expect."

"Laura," I said turning to her, "Do you trust me enough now? Are you willing to do this?"

"Yeah," She replied, "Lets get this over with. The less tampering with my mind, the better."

"Focus on the dream," Dean said, "I'll pick up on the images and pass them onto Nathan."

Laura nodded then closed her eyes. First there was nothing, and then I felt the thoughts first, like white noise, at the back of my head. They grew stronger and eventually I got a stream of thoughts rushing through my head. I ignored most of them and focused on the images, some disappeared when I tried to see and I guessed those were private. I felt a presence I my mind, sifting through the information I had learnt.

Soon I found the dream and began to concentrate on the images, picking up information on the location it was. This would be out of date, but it could give us a starting point. I froze an image. I could see in the distance, as they are taking off, a city. A large city I checked the locations of the mountains, the forest, the direction of the ocean. Then I broke contact at the same time Laura did.

"She was near Washington DC," We both exclaimed at once.

"She was attacked about thirty mules from the outer limits of Washington," I said, "If we hurry, we could track the Erasers, or perhaps might be able to locate Keira."

"But what of the other experiments," Dean said, "We need to help them. We can't just leave them."

"No we can't." I replied, "But Keira also has a chip in her arm. All experiments do. That's how they keep finding her."

"But we can't leave the other escapees," Dean argued again.

"If we don't rescue Keira," I argued back, "Then there is not point in freeing them. They'll all be dead. We save Keira; we keep them alive for another day."

After the argument, the cam fell silent and we put the fire out. I lay next to the fire, near the centre, close enough to guard everyone. I may have wished to sleep so I could protect Laura, but the others also needed protection, so I gave it to them as well. Eventually I fell of to sleep last as watched the starry night sky. I saw a shooting star and made a wish.


	21. Chapter 39 & 40

_**Chapter 39**_

We woke up the next morning without being forced to wake up. There were no Erasers or humans trying to disturb out sleep, no doors being busted down, nothing. It was the normal noises of the forest that had woken us up, the chirp of a bird in the trees, the rustle of leaves being blown in the wind, little things like that were what we woke to this morning. I sat up with a sigh and looked around. Cass had gone to collect more firewood by the looks, to start the breakfast fire, Dean was still asleep and Laura was no-where to be found.

_I wonder where Laura is?_ I thought to myself, but quietly. Dean was a telepath, no matter how much of a friend he is, I still like to have some private thoughts. I got up and walked around our makeshift camp, stretching the stiffness out of my muscles and loosening up my limbs incase of a sudden departure. I circled past Laura's bag and remembered what Cass had mentioned earlier last night, about giving her something. I pondered what I could give her, there wasn't much, most of my stuff had been either left at Haven, or back at my old house, the one I no longer lived in.

I sighed; girls could be so complicated at times. They seem to understand us guys, but we can never understand them, yet we are the ones best at patching things up? I mean when a fallout happens between two girl friends they get all spiteful and hold grudges, yet with us guys its just one big fist fight later and we're all sitting around a bar table sharing drinks with each other. I sighed and continued walking around the camp, preparing things for a quick departure if I had to. We could never be too prepared.

I rustle in the bushes had the knife half formed in my hand before I realized it was Cass returning from collecting firewood. I dissolved the knife and walked up to her to help her with the firewood.

"Do you know where Laura is?" I asked Cass, shifting a small pile of firewood out of her arms and onto the remains of the old fire, "She wasn't here when I woke up."

"She said she just needed to be left alone for a while," Cass replied, "She needed to clear her head out. Sort out all the things that have happened. She hasn't felt emotion in years and now she experiencing the full thing. She will need someone to help her, Nathan, but not at the moment. If you want to talk to her, I won't be attending your funeral."

"That's a comforting thought," I replied, "At least I'll have a funeral, not die out in the middle of nowhere and become some forgotten fossil that people will wonder over in years to come."

Cass rolled her eyes at my sad attempt at humor and continued to start the fire for our breakfast. I got the food out of one of the bags and handed it to her then walked off into the forest to find Laura. After about a couple of minutes of wandering around the forest, I began to hear the sound of running water. I approached it, remembering I had forgotten to get a drink when I woke up and was thirsty. My mind just didn't want to work today. The water was a crystalline clear stream that had come down from the mountains a few miles away.

I dipped my hands into the bone achingly cold water and cupped them together; bringing them to my mouth so I could drink the water. It numbed my teeth right down to the core and left me gasping from the cold alone. I took a couple more mouthfuls of water and stood up, drying off my mouth and hands. That was when I saw Laura sitting on some rocks a few meters away from me, near a small pool of water large enough to swim in. Her clothes were absolutely saturated with water and she was chilled to the bone, but she sat on the rock in the sun drying out, seemingly asleep, but I knew better. She sat up upon hearing me approach and her damp golden curls fell around her face, leaving me breathless. In that moment she looked so fragile, as if all her defense had been let down. I felt as if I was looking at the real Laura, the person she used to be before all of this happened. I looked into her eyes and saw all the confusion she was feeling in them, I started to turn back to camp, but her voice stopped me…

"Don't…" She said quietly to me, "I just want some company right now."

"Really?" I asked, "Cass said she wouldn't be attending my funeral if I came and talked to you? I thought you wanted to be left alone?"

"Then why are you here…?" Laura asked, a ghost of a smile in her eyes and on her face, "If you believed that?"

I gulped. It was not a good idea for me to be alone with Laura right now. She may be confused about her emotions, but I was confused about my entire life._ God save me, _I silently prayed and sat down beside her…

_**Chapter 40**_

I sat in silence; not sure talking was the right thing to do because I didn't know what I might end up saying. I let the water run through my fingers as I held my hand under, letting it flow through the gaps between my fingers. I felt a fish slide up into my hand and closed my fist, grabbing the fish before it got away. I pulled it out of the water and took a look at it. Its scales glimmered in the sunlight as beads of water dripped off its scales. Its mouth opened and closed, trying to breathe in the alien atmosphere. It wasn't very large, maybe about fifteen centimeters in length, scrawny and not very tasty looking.

I felt rather than heard Laura moving to take a look at the fish in my hand. Her hair brushed my shoulder as she moved to have a closer look and I ended up turning my head slightly so I could see her out of the corner of my eye. She reached out to grab the fish and ended up putting her weight onto me. I wasn't expecting it and both of us ended up falling into the water, the fish escaping my grasp and thrown into the water slightly further downstream, letting it survive the breakfast plans I had for it.

The water wasn't deep, but it was deep enough to get me completely covered and I came up gasping for breath from the coldness of the water. Laura was still recovering from the fall into the water when I resurfaced and we ended up face to face so close we were almost touching. Her hair hung down around her face, brushing against me. I stopped breathing as I stared into her eyes, I could sense she had stopped breathing as well. It was so tempting to just close that gap, to move those last remaining centimeters and kiss her.

But it wasn't me who moved, it was Laura. She leaned down and kissed me fully on the lips. I saw taken of guard by the sudden move and lost my balance as my hand slipped on a smooth rock on the bed of the stream. I was suddenly dunked underwater and came up spluttering water and coughing. So much for a romantic moment. Laura had moved off of me and had climbed out of the stream.

"I shouldn't have done that," I heard her mutter. She turned and saw me getting out of the stream fully soaked, "I'm sorry, Nathan, I shouldn't have…"

I broke her off before she could say anymore. I placed my hand under her chin, drawing her closer to me and kissed her back on the lips, passionately, taking in the full taste of her lips, the smell of her skin, the feeling of her hair brushing against my skin. It was a few moments before we broke apart for a breath. We just stood on the edge of the stream, gazing into each others eyes, making sure what just happened wasn't a dream.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to do that," Laura exclaimed, still breathless from our kiss.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that." I replied, "I fell for you a long time ago, I've only just got the courage to let you know now."

I kissed her lightly, a mere brush of the lips and pulled her close to me, not wanting this moment to end, but unfortunately it had to. A breeze began to blow from the north and it began to chill us.

"I think we need to change out clothes," I replied, "I don't fancy surviving all of this, just to freeze to death. Cass is cooking breakfast and it should be ready by now. You hungry?"

"Famished," Laura replied, "let's see if the foods finished, shall we?"

I nodded and we walked back with our arm around the other. Man, life was good at times like these…


	22. Chapter 41 & 42

_Authors Note: Please excuse any grammer errors in this chapter, I wrote these up late at night so there miight be a few. But please enjoy._

_And I do not own the concept of Erasers, theyt are the work of James patterson, everything else is my own original work. Letting the legal disclaimers know._

_**Chapter 41**_

We walked back to the camp at a slow leisurely pace, you know the one where you walk, but you want to take as much time to get where you're going while still walking properly. I would have put my arm around her shoulders, but that would have been awkward, what with the wings and all. It would have been the same with the waist, so I had to settle with just placing her hand in mine. She laid her head on my shoulder as we wandered through the trees back towards our camp.

"When was the first time you had feelings for me?" Laura asked.

"The first time I met you," I replied, "I felt physically attracted to you, you took my breath away. But the more I got to know you, the more I realized that my feelings for you went beyond just mere physical attraction. I had fallen for you, fallen in love with you."

"First time I saw you," Laura replied, "My heart skipped a beat, I was taken back by your blue eyes, and when you showed me the true color, I was fascinated by it. But it's what has happened recently that has made my feelings for you grow stronger. Through this entire ordeal, you have never gone into a rage or a depression, never lost your cool, but you did cry. Crying is normal, it's human and I could relate to that, but you always put others head of yourself, always put our safety ahead of yours. You were willing to be recaptured or killed to let us have a chance?"

"Well," I replied, "I decided if I got re-captured, I could just hatch another plan to escape. They can't keep me holed up for long. I was smart before I changed; now I'm smarter. If they killed me… well at least I wouldn't be around to endure any more, but the only thing that stopped me from letting myself be killed to give you guys a major advantage was because I didn't want to leave you behind."

"Courageous and honest," Laura replied, "an interesting combination. Can't say you see that much in guys now days. Most are liars and cheats. I suppose you were a real charmer with the girls in your old life?"

"Yeah," I said, "I sometimes wished they would leave me alone. Well I got my wish, just a bit done over the top. But hey, I can't complain, I'm here with you aren't I?"

"Alright you can quit the flattering comments now," Laura replied, "How are we going to break this to Dean?"

"You knew Dean liked you all along?" I asked, "Man that's cruel. You liked me, yet you lead him along? Remind me never to get on your dark side. I'm afraid of what I might find."

"Very funny," Laura replied sarcastically, "Well I was unsure of how you felt and I didn't know how to let Dean down. He's a nice guy but…"

"He's a bit forward?" I asked, finishing her sentence.

"Got it in one," Laura replied, "But I have a suspicion it was you who let him sleep on the bed at the motel. Did you do that deliberately?"

"Maybe," I replied, "That and I didn't trust my self on the same bed with you. I might have muttered something embarrassing in my sleep."

"I watched you sleep that night," Laura replied, "It was when I realized the true extent of my feelings for you. I just couldn't help but watch you. What?"

I shook my head as a smile crossed my face. To think all this time I was hiding the fact I kept watching her out of the corner of my eye, and she had been watching me in my sleep? Ok, maybe once, but why didn't I think of that. Too stalker like? Maybe.

"I was just remembering all the times I used to watch you out of the corner of my eyes," I replied, "You never noticed me watching you. Dean knew I liked you. Cass figured it out last night while I was gazing at you across the fire. In fact you were the last to know."

"Are you teasing me?" Laura asked, "Because if you are, that's just cruel. How was I supposed to know you watched me? Every time I looked at you, you were always looking the other way."

"Ding dong," I replied smartly, "Anyone home? Usually if a guy does that around someone, either they are busy, or they are deliberately not looking at you because they are afraid what might show in their eyes or on their faces."

Laura went to hit me at the comment I made, but I sucked her hand and stole a kiss before running off through the forest heading back to camp, Laura chasing after me, promising to get me back for that comment. I stopped so suddenly Laura collided with me.

"What is it?" Laura whispered softly.

"People," I replied, "At our camp. I'll see if I can get a look."

I spread my consciousness into the darkness around me and focused it towards our camp. It reached the edges and I could see into the clearing. Three guys with guns were standing around the fire. One was cradling a burnt arm, another was cradling his head as if he had just had it stuck in a vice and it threatened to crack. I saw Dean and Cass tied up over by the opposite side of the clearing, they were unconscious…

_**Chapter 42**_

"That darn witch," I heard one of the poachers say, "She burnt my arm real bad. I want to kill her for that. She'll pay for it, one way or another."

"You think your arms bad?" The poacher holding his head said, "My head felt like it was going to crack right in half. That strange guy, the little prick, was messing around in my head. I'll beat him to within an inch of his life for that."

"You won't lay a single finger on them," The third poacher said, "Do you know how much people will pay for freaks like them? It would be in the millions or perhaps another couple of zeros onto the end of that. So we leave them unharmed and see how much we can get for them."

There were grumbles and a few complaints by the other two, but in the end they agreed after the leader threatened to not give them any of the money. I wasn't going to let that happen. I may not trust Cass that much, but she's still one of us, and these guys weren't whitecoats, they were humans, normal unsuspecting humans. They can't know we exist, no-one can know we exist. I returned to myself, the darkness blending back to where it was summoned from and I turned to Laura.

"Three humans," I replied, "Poachers by the looks. They're sitting around the campfire. Laura and Dean are tied up on the far side of the clearing. We can slip around and cut their bindings, free them. Then we take out the poachers; make sure they can't track us down again."

"Are you suggesting that once we free Dean and Cass, we kill the poachers?" Laura asked, "You're colder hearted than I thought."

"What? And you though I was a bleeding heart?" I retorted, "I'm not that soft. I do what I have to, to keep you all alive. Even if that means making sure a few poachers don't follow our butts half way across the world because we might be worth a few million dollars to them, understand?"

Laura went silent and I felt like apologizing to her, but I didn't. We could kiss and make up later but right now I was worrying about making sure all of us survived this. I was not going to let some poachers sell us off to some circus as freaks and I certainly was not going to let them hunt us all around the place because we might be worth a small king's ransom in money. If Laura wanted to complain about it, that was fine, but I was not going to let anyone, especially her wind up in a cage again.

"If you can't handle it," I said after a while, "then free Dean and Cass, I'll take care of them. I am not letting anyone go back into cages. I know people like them. Poachers they are known as. They find something that gets them money, and a lot of it, they won't stop until they get it. They only want money, they don't care who or what they are hunting."

"Let's just do it," Laura replied, "We'll discuss this later."

"One last thing," I replied, "Everyone has flaws, even you. But that's what I like about you, you're not perfect. I hate people who pretend to be perfect. If you don't like the fact I can kill someone, think again. I don't like killing people, I have never killed anyone before, but I care for those around me, that's my flaw. I'd do anything to protect them, unless I have reason not to; just know that before you judge me. I'll ask you at the end of the day if you still want to be with me."

I didn't wait for Laura to respond to that and walked of through the bushes, the shadow panther walking out of the shadows along side me. I approached the clearing where we had made camp and listened to the poachers talk amongst themselves until I had managed to pinpoint their locations in the clearing. Laura moved past me and further around the clearing until she was near Dean and Cass. I waited a few minutes, then heard the poachers start yelling and cursing. I moved into the clearing as I saw them try to grab Laura.

It was as if something snapped in us both at the same time. I let the panther loose of my control and it attacked the first Poacher that headed my way. Laura went into defensive mode and broke the arm of the guy that tried to grab her. The third went for me, swinging his gun butt around at my head. I ducked under it and came up ramming my fist hard into his chest, hearing a few ribs crack and sending him sprawling on his back.

The panther was mauling the first poacher, claws slashing away at clothing. The guy let out a scream as the panther bit down hard on the burnt arm, for a split second I had the sensation of deep fried chicken in my mouth, then it was gone. The second poacher had tried to attack Laura again, this time he had grabbed her from behind as she was trying to free Dean and Cass. I watched thunderstruck as she reached up behind his neck and threw him over her shoulder, twisting his neck as she did so until I heard the crack as the bone broke.

I turned back to the third poacher as he lunged at me, aiming for the gun in my hands that I had taken from him. I reacted instantly, lifting the gun up and pointing it at his head, a moment later there was a loud crack as the gun went of and the guy fell back on the ground, blood seeping through his shirt where the bullet had pierced his heart. I dropped the gun and began to back away from the body, not believing what had happened. Killing people in video games is a lot different to real life killing. The shock at seeing the life leave someone's eyes, knowing you did it, that will haunt you for the rest of your lives.

I looked over at the panther to find it had disappeared back into the shadows, leaving the first poacher dead in the middle of the clearing. I took one look at the mutilated body and ended up vomiting in the bushes at the edge of the clearing. I couldn't, no wouldn't describe what was left of it. After I had finished upchucking my dinner from last night I went back to the clearing, feeling numb and disconnected from everything. Cass had taken care of the bodies, burning them so that no traces remained. I sat down on the ground near my bag, Laura came a joined me.

"I can handle the fact you want to protect us," Laura said, "but I didn't want this happening to you. I knew what it was like, I can handle it. They made me like that, no emotion so I killed and killed without feeling the effects for what I did. I remember all that happened back then, but disconnected. Today when I killed him, I went back to being emotionless. I can kill and not feeling anything. Once you've killed for the first time, Nathan, it only gets easier. I didn't want this to happen to you, I wanted to do that, because I knew I could have saved you the pain, but I can see it's already to late for that."

I broke down in Laura arms, emotion filling me again and I cried. I felt disgust at myself, for being able to do such a thing, sorrow for the life I had ended. But most of all I felt pain at the loss of my old self. I had finally succeeded in killing that person off in this one deed. It was many hours before I was ready to do anything and by then it was dark. We all didn't feel like eating and I was too tired to eat. I fell asleep to Laura stroking my hair, taking comfort in her being there for me…


	23. Chapter 43 & 44

_**Chapter 43**_

"We won't be moving!" A voice whispered angrily, "Not with Nathan in the state he's in at the moment."

"But people will be coming," A voice whispered back, just as fierce, "They'll be looking for those guys you killed."

I lay there listening to Dean and Laura argue. It was close to midnight according to a watch. Somehow I had managed to keep at least that. A flashback on the previous day, the fight, the deaths and I lay there detached from it all. It scares me how fast I had gone from hating myself for what I did, to accepting it in moving on, but I had.

I moved from the patch of ground I lay on and approached the fire. Dean and Laura stopped talking as I approached, and confirmed my suspicion that they were talking about me. I grabbed some cooked food, sat down beside them and began to eat, well aware of them watching me. After a while Dean spoke.

"How can you eat after all that?"" he asked, "if it were me, I couldn't eat anything, not for a while anyway."

"Then you'll just starve," I replied. "Our metabolisms require us to eat more to keep our energy up to live. As for how I can eat at a time like this? The whitecoats helped me accept death, my mother and father helped me there."

Laura moved beside me and placed her hand in mine. I held her hand, but continued looking at Dean. He either didn't notice in the poor light, or he didn't want to show anything until he could get me on my own. I was still torn up about killing humans. I had already killed two Erasers, but those were life and death situations. I'd already beaten myself up for it. But they were experiments. Does the fact that I don't mind killing other experiments make me just like the whitecoats? Or just someone who was trying to survive? I didn't know there, but killing Erasers I could handle, it was far easier to accept than killing humans. It's much less personal if you never were one, makes it easier to accept I suppose. I'd beaten myself up about killing, all that time I had broken down after Danielle's death, part of it was how I could have killed them without a second thought. I let out a sigh. Things would be much easier if you could have a clear definition between good and bad. But life's just cruel and doesn't grant that privilege.

"I can kill Erasers," I said, "Without a second glance because I've already decided if they threaten us, it's either us or them. I prefer staying alive. Yeah I beat myself up about it, but I continue on with my life. You can't undo the past. But humans, it's different. Sure the whitecoats I could kill them, I could kill humans, but it would still take me time to get used to it. I used to be human, Dean. Remember that. It's much easier to kill if you don't have a personal connection to them."

The images flashed through my mind from the fight again and I lost my appetite. I placed the food back on the paper plates we were using and let go of Laura's hand, walking off into the forest. Erasers, wolf men, whatever they are, I could kill. I had never known what it's like to be one, but I could kill. It was like I said to Dean it was either them or us, I prefer us being the winners. But I began to think again. My brother is one of them; would I be able to kill him as easily as the others? Or would I have trouble? What scared me the most wasn't thinking of the question, but I already knew the answer, if he tried to kill me I could pull the trigger, personal attachment or not. Killing those humans had killed the last remaining piece of humanity I had. So I clung to the last part of bird-human I had left, the thought that I had done all this to protect my family, my new family, my flock.

Laura slipped up beside me as I stared off in the distance. While I was in thought, my feet had taken me to a cliff nearby. I was staring out over the landscape spotting cities and little townships all over the place, the busy highways and the crammed towns. I could never go back there, I had nothing left in me to return back there. Every part of me, every human part, the whitecoats had forced me to kill in all ways except one. That I'd never kill a human, and yet, here I am because of them, protecting my family by killing humans. No, the old Nathan was dead, the new me, was one more serious than I had ever been. Stuff humanities rules. That's not what makes us human, it's our ability to feel that makes us humans. And it's feeling that drives people to kill, out of love, passion, willingness to protect or because you're psycho. I don't want to kill, I never wanted to kill, but if the situation forces me to kill to save my family... I would.

"It just gets easier," I said to Laura, "Doesn't it?"

"What?" She replied back.

"The decision to kill," I replied, "It just gets easier the more you think about it. I hate killing, anybody, anything for that matter, yet even if you don't want to kill, driven to the right circumstances, people would kill to survive. It's the survival instinct. I wonder if the decision I just made, still makes me human, or changes me to a monster. But to me, it no longer matters. The whitecoats drove us to this, they can suffer what they made us."

I turned around and walked back to camp, leaving Laura looking out over the landscape and pondering my words. She had already gone through this, the whitecoats had made her an emotionless killer. She was still trained to kill, but she is lucky, when she kills she feels no emotion. It's an automatic response with her body because of what's happened in the past. She could never understand the small sacrifices of my humanity I made, because she was never human. But that's one reason why I love her, she doesn't know what it's like to be human and I want to teach her how to feel again, as she teaches me not to feel at all...

**Chapter 44**

Laura stayed at the cliff, Nathan's words running around inside her head. If people were driven to the right circumstances, they would be driven to kill to survive, that was true, but did we necessarily have to kill who we fought? Laura had began doubting that ever since she had started feeling emotion again, flashing back on her past hurt her, but she could just stop feeling, not like Nathan.

Sure, she had killed in the past, the whitecoats had tested her about that. She had no qualms in killing people who threatened her life. She's killed whitecoats, Erasers, even other bird kids, all because they had forced her to, but now, after what Nathan had said, she began to realize that there could have been another way out, one that didn't involve death.

_Then why did he say we had to kill them?_ Laura thought, _those, what did he call them? Poachers? Why did we have to kill them?_ Then Laura remembered what Nathan had said about Poachers. It had torn Nathan to make the decisions, but he was right. Unless the poachers were killed, they would have told others about their existence. They would have continued hunting us to the ends of the earth until we killed them, or they killed us. Because that's always what it comes down to, kill or be killed. No-one wants to be killed, so they always kill . Laura was more confused than before.

_All my life, I've been trained not to feel emotion,_ She thought, a_nd now I do, I'm starting to doubt myself. It just confuses me, leaves me feeling so unsure and insecure._ Then Laura realized something else, perhaps their meeting wasn't chance, maybe that's why they had been bought together. Nathan lacked the control to separate himself from the situation, to not feel emotion when the situation arises. She, on the other hand, had that control, but was always calculating things. She never took risks, never followed instincts for feelings unless she had figured out what could happen. The first time she took a risk, based on her feelings was kissing Nathan, and it had felt wonderful. Maybe that's why we were bought together. Not only to fall in love, but to complete each other. _Is that my reason to exist?_ Laura thought, _so I can feel, so I can love? So I can live? I was cloned from Keira, yet I have broken free of those chains. Maybe this was what was meant to happen after all._

Laura smiled at the thought of the whitecoats creating her for the reasons of her falling for Nathan and becoming someone, it contradicts what the whitecoats had made her for. They wanted her to replace someone, but instead she became someone. It's situations like these that make you wonder about life and why you were born. When you see death you realize how mortal you really are and that someday you will die. So what's the point in living if all your going to do is die? The answer is simple, so you can live, so you can have the experience of living. Laura turned back from the cliff and walked back to the camp, pondering the revelations she had running through her head. Fate had chosen Nathan for her, so he could teach her how to feel, how to live, while she could teach him how to become detached and see things from an non-emotional way.

As she moved away, she didn't know what extent the fates had woven for her. She would experience all the emotions, she had experienced so many before, but the true test was still to come, and the test would be set into motion by the shadow that watched her from the trees. She would feel all the emotions, including the painful ones. Heartache and betrayal… Fate was indeed going to throw a twist in for them, only problem is, would both of them survive?


	24. Chapter 45 & 46

**_Chapter 45 _**

Dean cleaned up around the campfire, burying the trash and wrapping up the uneaten food. The image of Laura sitting next to Nathan as she placed a hand in his raced through his mind. _Laura chose him,_ Dean thought angrily, _I've always been there for her, but she chose him. I was the one who had fought the Whitecoats, just to give her a little more time to chance to rest. What does she see in him?_

Dean threw a bag on the ground, a little too hard, and the contents spilt out. He beamed down to pick up the spilled contents of the bag, grabbing them to stick them back in the bag before Nathan and Laura returned.

"Need any help?" Nathan asked from behind him.

"I don't need help," Dean replied, "especially from cold-hearted killers like you. You're no better than the whitecoats. I used to fight them to keep her safe. She doesn't deserve someone like you!"

Tears had begun to form in his eyes as he let loose. He had started this and he was going to finish it. Tears began to fall from his face when he spoke again.

"I secretly watch her for years," Dean said, "protecting her, causing divisions to give her a few extra minutes of rest before they experimented on her again. It's tore me up what they did to her, they slowly made the girl I knew disappear. The kind, happy, smiling girl I fell for was replaced by an unfeeling killer. I don't know what happened, but that girl, the one I knew, finally came back. AND YOU TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME!"

Dean swung a fist at Nathan. It connected with his cheek and Nathan stumbled back, but stayed standing.

"The truth comes out," Nathan replied. "Dean, I never knew the extent of your feelings for, you never want to talk about it. You always kept to yourself."

Dean ran at Nathan again, readying himself for another punch, the pain in his face obvious. He wasn't angry and Nathan, but at himself. He had been too weak to tell her how he felt and he lost her. He stopped mere centimetres away from Nathan, first raised, tears falling down his face. Nathan and Dean just stood there, frozen, not moving, until Dean dropped his fist and began to break down and cry, finally giving in to his heartbreak.

"Dean," Nathan said after a while, kneeling down beside him, "Dean look at me. I know it huts. I know how…"

"No, you don't," Dean interrupted, now calmer that he had let things get off his chest, "You wouldn't have the first idea."

"I do," Nathan replied, "More than you know."

"Yeah right," Dean replied, "You have Laura, why would you have felt heartache and betrayal?"

Dean looked up at Nathan's face and began to think it might have been a bad decision to say that to him. The shadows on Nathan's face scared him; the pain in his eyes was obvious.

"What happened?" Dean asked…

_**Chapter 46**_

The memories of when I was fourteen rushed into my mind when I saw Dean on the ground in pain. There are things I hated about my father before he staged his death. Staging his death just made me hate him more and finding out he ran Haven...? That was the last straw. I was beyond forgiving him.

"You know how adults say at around the age of thirteen; we are too young to know love?" I replied to Dean, "That rule doesn't always apply. I grew up in a household where I had to mature faster than most because I had to look after myself and my younger brother and sister."

"So what happened?" Dean asked.

"It was my father," I replied, "He ended up in a partnership with some other scientist. They were working on all the experimentation that lead to where we are now. I don't know much of the details about what they were doing, but my dad kept telling me I would find out when I was older and ready to take over the business. But id had known one thing; part of their agreement was an arranged marriage between the two families. The daughter of my father's friend was who I was supposedly marrying. I refused to do it, but my father… well you've met him haven't you?"

Dean nodded when I asked that. He knew exactly how controlling and manipulative my father could be, he'd seen it first hand.

"Anyway I proved to be stubborn about it and he decided to try for a compromise," I continued, "He said they could arrange something else, but I was to meet the daughter first, so I agreed to it, I wasn't happy about having my future planned for me, but I agreed. We met a couple of weeks later and found out it wasn't as bad as we expected. Neither of us knew what our parents work was, but we got along quite well, eventually we ended up falling for each other."

"Love works in strange ways," Dean said, "Don't you think so Nathan?"

"Fate works in strange ways," I replied bitterly, "It was a month after my fourteenth birthday, before my father staged his death, that she was killed. It was a street racer; he ran a red light and slammed into the side of the car. I was there when it happened, I tried to protect her from the impact, but wasn't able to. She died in my arms while waiting for the paramedics, internal bleeding was what they said. The racer didn't survive the crash either, he went flying through the windscreen, but if he had survived, I probably would have killed him then and there."

"I suppose I should be jealous then," Laura said, walking into the clearing, "That you had someone before me, but I can't say that I am, because I have you now. If you don't mind me asking, what was she like?"

"A lot like you actually," I replied, "Except without the messed up past, although hers was a bit messed up it wasn't as bad as yours. Also let's not forget the fact she didn't have wings. It was too much having her taken away from me at the time, and then dad died, well supposedly died, and I just couldn't handle it. I just sort of shut down and can't remember much of the time afterwards, but recently it's just started coming back to me, but I don't feel it as much as I used to."

"A lot like me?" Laura repeated, "Well then maybe I should be jealous."

"Don't be," I replied, "You're way much more fun than she was."

Laura smiled and kissed me on the cheek at that comment, but I didn't kiss her back. I didn't want to make Dean feel like I was rubbing it in his face. Laura must have guessed because she left it alone. We sat in silence again for a little while then, as the fire slowly shrank into embers we went to bed. Dean slept on the opposite side to the campfire as we did. Cass was nowhere to be seen and I was slightly worried, but she could have been getting cleaned up at the stream for all I know. I didn't enquire. Laura and I snuggled up to one another near the campfire's embers and eventually fell asleep in each others arms.


	25. Chapter 47 & 48

_**Authors Note: **I am soo sorry people. I've been messed up with Exams and assessments around school that I've only just been able to get online and post up some of the chapters I've written recently. But I'll be posting them up until I've got them up to date._

* * *

_**Chapter 47**_

The shadowed figure watched them sleep through the trees. She wasn't surprised she had managed to get this close. They are amateurs and they had never gone up against someone who could turn invisible. She had watched them since earlier in the night, when she saw her, the blond girl they were with. Either they were stupid, or they were working with her. _Trackers, _she thought, _when will they give up hunting us escapees? I guess never._

She had watched how the guy, one with similar wings to the girl, had held her hand, how she kissed him, how, even now, they lay together in the clearing. She felt sorry for the guy, not realizing he was being manipulated like everyone else who had come in contact with her. She always found ways to manipulate people. She wasn't capable of feeling.

The figure nodded to another shadow on the opposite side of the clearing, giving the signal. The figure dropped lightly from the tree, not making a sound and approached the two figures sleeping in the clearing together. A needle fine spike grew out the figures hand and he removed it carefully, it was a poison tipped spike, part of his abilities. It was coated with a very strong sleeping agent that would work instantly. The figure approached the couple and injected the spike into the girl, she never awoke. The figure moved back into the trees and she nodded her head to the girl in the tree next to her. She disappeared and then reappeared next to the unconscious girl, placed her hands on the girls arm then both of them were gone as she teleported them out of there.

The figure smiled, her plan had gone of flawlessly. Now all they had to do was figure out why they were out here in the first place. She crept down from the trees and approached the bags they had kept near the campfire. Slowly and carefully she rummaged through the bags, making sure not to wake them up. There were food provisions and medical supplies her and the others could use and some spare clothing that might be able to fit them. Then she found one of the devices that the Erasers carry to track the escapees with their chips. She picked it up and was about to break it when she realised it was already on, but no signals were being picked up from the sleeping forms in the clearing. _Perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye, _She thought, _All the more reason why to figure out they are here._ She placed everything back the way they had packed it and left the clearing and the figures sleeping and returned to the trees. The other figure walked up next to her out of the trees and she nodded to him, letting him know they weren't a threat… yet.

They had made camp about three miles from the clearing, in a small cove of trees. When she arrived there, they had the girl tied up and blindfolded. Once the sleeping agent wore off she would question her about why they were here and she wanted answers. The Erasers had been hunting more and more ferociously lately, bringing in escapees dead or near death. Their bosses weren't happy, but at least the situation was being contained.

She looked down at the girl lying asleep there on the ground and felt nothing but anger toward her. The last time they had met, she had tried to kill her. The whitecoats had tried to kill her by using a clone of her, that same clone who was now lying unconscious on the ground right in front of her.

"Keira," The male figure said, "We'll be starting as soon as she wakes up. You find anything?"

"Yeah," She replied, "the backpacks were property of a Nathan Corway. It's the Corway family. When they come looking for her, kill them, otherwise we will never be left alone."

_**Chapter 48**_

I hadn't slept long before I was woken again. It would have been about three in the morning, meaning I had gotten about two and a half hours sleep. I looked around the clearing and saw that Cass had returned while I was asleep. Then I realized Laura wasn't next to me. She must have woken before I did. I looked around the clearing again to make sure she wasn't there then got up. There was a noise from the bushes, a twig snapping, feathers brushing against the leaves. I didn't shout out, I did say anything. It would most likely be Laura, but there are others, people in similar situations to what Cass was that are still working for the Erasers. I moved quietly, the knife forming in my hand automatically. I didn't use the darkness to search for who it was, someone would sense the darkness, Pyro's are good at sensing it and so are telepaths, as I figured out.

I moved into the bushes where the sound had come from, careful not to step on anything that might give away my position to whoever it was. The faint sound of feathers brushing against a tree to my right confirmed that this was either, a wild bird, Winged Erasers, or more kids like me. I was hoping it wasn't the second and I would feel stupid if it was the first. A twig snapped and I heard a muttered curse from whoever it was in the bushes. Guess it ruled out theory one, wild birds can't curse. I moved closer, seeing a figure creep through the bushes towards our camp. The figure was too light and swift to be a flying Eraser, so there went theory number two and I was left with my answer.

The figure moved into a shaft of moonlight and I got to see the golden hair and the snowy white and tan brown feathers. At first glimpse I thought it was Laura and was about to call out to her, but then I was a second figure approach through the trees and talk to her. The figure couldn't have been anyone from our group. Suddenly things began to fall in place in my mind. We had been searching for Keira and she had happened to come across us camping here. I moved closer to the two of them, surprised they hadn't picked up on me yet. They were having a heated discussion, but I missed most of it, hearing only the last part of the conversation.

"Get what you can out of her," Keira commanded, "I want to know what they are here for, then once you have that information, kill her. I don't want a repeat of last time."

The figure disappeared into the trees and Keira was about to return to watching our camp when I stepped out of the shadows, hand hidden behind my back as a gun formed in it.

"You know," I said, "If you wanted information, you could have just asked. It's not nice kidnapping someone, interrogating them and then killing them."

Keira spun around upon hearing my voice, obviously surprised at how close I got without her knowing. Her hand lifted up and I saw the glint of steel as a throwing knife appeared in her hand and she threw it towards me. I didn't even bother moving, but raised the gun and fired right at the knife, shattering the blade. There was no sound from the gun, just the shot propelled from the gun. At least that answered my long unanswered question. Can a gun made of darkness fire? Yep, I guess it does.

Keira was surprised at the shattered knife and hesitated for a second. That was when I took my chance and tackled her into another clearing behind us. She began to struggle as I wrestled with her in the clearing. The gun had dissolved back into darkness and we forgot we even had weapons or powers. I happened to get pinned beneath Keira and she smiled down at me, a knife in her hand. I placed my feet under her and flipped her over my head and elsewhere in the trees. I recovered and composed myself to find the clearing and the trees nearby empty.

Something rammed into my right shoulder, sending me stumbling as I tried to see what it was, but couldn't. The next hit came from behind and to the left, a roundhouse kick that planted on the side of my ribcage. I felt the distinct print of a shoe and realised what had happened. Keira could turn invisible. This was going to be an interesting fight. I focused the darkness around me, blinding her and giving me a chance to find her. For people to become invisible, they must be able to bend light around themselves. For me to find her I only had to bring the darkness around me and wherever it couldn't go was where she was. After a few seconds, I heard a twig snap and then the darkness dispersed from an area to my right. I had found her…


	26. Chapter 49 & 50

_**Chapter 49**_

Laura woke to unfamiliar surroundings. Her arm stung from where the spines had injected her with the sleeping agent. Thanks to her healing ability, she was able to wear off the effects of the drug in half the time they expected her to. She looked around the clearing while still pretending to be asleep, scanning for anyone nearby. They had left her close to the edge of the clearing, away from the rest of the camp. If she could cut her bindings, she could escape and get back to the others and warn them.

She felt a sudden pain in her arm, but nothing was there. She went back to work cutting the bindings on the sharp rock digging into her back when she felt another sharp pain in her arm again. She had a flash of Keira fighting Nathan in a clearing nearby. Each strike he made against Keira, Laura felt as well. They might be clones, but somehow other than their DNA, they were connected. Why hadn't it shown before?

Laura began to work more frantically at her bindings, trying to break free of them and stop the fight before anything happened to either of them. She felt sudden warmth in her hands and all of a sudden the darkness seemed more distant than before. A weight seemed to drop into her hand and she felt the familiar handle of a dagger in her balm, the blade poised incredibly against the rope so she could cut it.

She didn't worry about how it had gotten there, she just used the dagger to cut the rope, feeling the fight was nearing an end; she cut faster and faster, slicing through the rope until she felt the rope break and she was able to move. She removed the rope from around her hands and then moved her hand to cut the ropes around her feet. As she moved her hand around from behind her, she saw the pale white glow before the dagger itself was in view. Somehow she had managed to form a dagger from light, but the only source of light was… moonlight. She looked up at the moon and it glowed the same pale white as the dagger.

She didn't take the time to worry about how she was able to do it. She moved the dagger to her feet and quickly cut through the bindings. Once they were broken, she moved quickly towards the trees and into the shadows, the dagger in her hand creating the only light for her to travel by in the darkness of the trees, but it was enough for her. She raced through the trees, following her instinct as to where Nathan and Laura were fighting. She stopped as she reached the clearing, sensing movement behind her as she did so and plunged the dagger back into the heart of an Eraser that had been stalking her through the dark. How long it had been following her, she didn't know, she was preoccupied, but now there were more showing up, surrounding the clearing. If Nathan had noticed them he didn't show any indication that he had sensed them.

Laura stood in the darkness of the trees, feeling the familiar numbness she had experienced whenever she had gone into combat, the loss of all emotion. Her pupils dilated and she was focusing on nothing but the upcoming battle. The dagger had gone from her hand, and a large cat walked up next to her made of pure light. It rubbed itself against her legs and she reached down a hand to stroke through its fur, calming it as it growled sensing the enemies nearby, letting it know now wasn't the time to attack.

Laura saw the similarities between her power and Nathan's, except that the darkness was his, while the light was hers. As soon as she realised that, she began to figure out how to control her ability, using the descriptions Nathan had given her while they had talked in their times of not running away from things or fighting other things. A sudden movement from Nathan and Keira signalled the beginning of the fight…

_**Chapter 50**_

She tried to attack me again, running at me, but to the side so she would sweep me again, clipping my arm. I side stepped her and stuck my foot out, tripping her up. She fell to the ground and I landed on top of her, struggling to hold her down while she tried to cut me with a second knife. The shadow panther walked up to her and tore the knife out of her hand then placed it's fangs around her neck, making her sit very still.

"Now listen to me, Keira," I replied, "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here trying to save your life from the six Erasers… make that five Erasers, surrounding us and the three flying ones above us. So promise you won't kill me as soon as my back is turned to you. We'll figure out our differences later."

Keira looked at me for a moment, then nodded her head, just a single movement, but one that would let me know without letting the Erasers know we were about to attack. I felt the darkness flow through me, but also felt a new presence, one of pure light, standing just beyond the clearing watching us, waiting for us to make a move. _Laura, _I thought, _but how did she get that… that power? Could it have been…?_ I flashed back on the time when I had kissed her, then flashed back to the day my mother had injected me with the virus to kill off the mutation of my foresight. That day, instead of getting rid of my ability, it gave me a new one. _So what if…_ I thought; _what if that drug was in a virus form? Does that mean I infected Laura when I kissed her? Is it transferred through blood, saliva or breathing? But if so, it gave her a new ability as well… _

I felt a movement as the Erasers began their attack and leapt off of Keira, launching a sweep-kick into the nearest Eraser's legs , sending him sprawling to the ground where the panther… well let's just say it dealt with him. Gross, I don't think I'd be feeling like dinner tomorrow. The dagger appeared in one hand and the gun appeared in the other. Don't ask me how I could have both of them and the panther around, I have no clue, but my powers were growing. I shot at an Eraser, the bullet of darkness hitting him square in the chest. I continued through the attack by sweeping the dagger up and slashing an Eraser in the leg, making him collapse and drew the dagger down to finish him.

Laura was right, the killing, once started, never stopped. I found it easy to kill these Erasers; no second thoughts went through my head, just the need to protect what I cared about. A sudden burst of flame erupted from the forest near the clearing and scorched two Erasers that were charging our way, a third one went down on his knees, no apparent reason except to clutch his head in pain. I guess Dean had arrived as well.

I felt a shoulder back into mine and whirled around to have my blade blocked by one of pure light. I stared into Laura's eyes as the blades clanged together and sent sparks of light and darkness everywhere. I whirled away and struck another of the Erasers, a flying one this time, and he crashed to the ground. We were down to about three Erasers, Keira taking down one with a dagger to the throat, Dean was torturing a second, and I told him to put it out of its misery. Cass had already burnt the third and was cremating the corpses to rid us of the evidence of the fight. That's when I heard Laura cry out in pain and whirled around to find a familiar face standing over her as she fell to the ground bleeding, a sword was in his hand, her blood on the blade…

_Laura! _I thought immediately, _Laura, please don't be dead. Please don't be. _

I looked to Dean and he had heard my thoughts. He nodded his head to signify she was still alive. I looked back at the Eraser with the sword in his hand and cold hard anger flowed over me. My world turned to a red haze, my vision focused only on the one Eraser. My breathing was coming quickly and I began to hyperventilate until suddenly everything was gone, I felt no emotion, no pain, exhaustion, fear or worry. Everything had been blocked out except for the cold hard calculating brain.

"Jake," I said at last, "How nice of you to join the party. Tell me… you trying to start resurrect an old fashion in the art of combat? Or do you want to fight me close up to watch me die? If that's the case… I'll be watching you die. No-one and I mean no-one, hurts my flock and live to talk about it. Prepare to die!"

As I expected Jake rushed forward, swinging the sword high and my neck. I moulded a sword out of the darkness and bought it up to block his attack. He glared fiercely into my eyes and I saw the hatred he had burning under the skin, but shown in his eyes.

"No, Nathan," Jake replied, "You prepare to die! You and your filthy flock. You're kind are out-of-date now. You aren't needed around anymore."

"Why?" I asked coldly, sliding the blade out from the block and continuing through with my own attack which Jake had to block or he would have been decapitated, "Do you think we are the ones that are out-of-date? When we display rebellious behaviour that makes us hard to understand? No, I think you are the ones who are out of date, Jake, You and your pack, which does their every bidding and provides no challenge for them at all. You are out-of-date."

As I expected Jake took the bait, he attacked me relentlessly, trying to prove we were the ones out of date, but I was in no mood to fool around. I calculated his every move and the one he would do next from his body language, the only thing I cared about was drawing him away from Laura for Dean to help her, and it was working. I didn't need my foresight to read Jake's actions, he made them clear himself. I blocked another attack and swung back at him, cutting his arm and part of his chest deeply, seeing the crimson spread over his shirt. _Laura, _I thought, the first sign I was wearing out, _please be alright, please survive this…_


	27. Chapter 51 & 52

_**Chapter 51**_

Jake could sense it, the fact I couldn't hold on to this state of mind for long. He could sense me losing my focus and he went in for the kill. He swung his sword at me neck, forcing me to block his attack or lose my head, then followed through by trying to sweep my feet out from under me. I saw it coming by the way he adjusted his balance and started to lower his body and prepared, jumping over it and twisting my blade to force his out of the deadlock we had put them in. He hadn't expected it and was still regaining his balance as I pushed the attack, taking a stab at his chest, then at the last minute, when I was sure it would miss his chest, slashed it upwards and cut his shoulder. Crimson began to leak out onto the shirt as the cut began to bleed, not a deep one, but one that would require stitches anyway.

He looked at the wound then back at me, shock and anger apparent on his face. He lunged at me, blade forward, no slashing movement, just a straight lunge as he tried to plunge the sword into me. I spread my wings a little and waited for the right moment. As soon as it came I jumped, using my wings to give me an extra boost and somersaulted over Jake's head and landed behind him. I turned to face him as he bought another attack around to bear. I avoided it, but only just, a sharp sting on my arm told me that it had pierced the skin. We were both even now; our main arms were both injured. I had to end this quickly, the longer I fought Jake, the more Laura bled to death. I switched my sword to my other hand, a move Jake hadn't expected. One thing I had kept from my family was the fact I was ambidextrous. The sword moulded to fit my right hand as me left summoned a lighter, more efficient sword for my wounded arm.

I didn't wait for the shock to wear off, but went for the attack again. I lunged at Jake, the larger sword going in for the attack, the smaller one held back for later use if needed. Jake blocked the first sword as I expected. I had manoeuvred the sword so I could flick his out of his hand and did so, seeing the shock as he saw his sword fly away and I bought the other one around to bear and stopped it bare millimetres from his neck. No matter how hard I could try, I couldn't kill my brother. He was the only thing I had left from my past.

"Why won't you kill me?" Jake asked, "Your girlfriend is dying, bleeding to death as you stand here. I'm going to love watching the life leave her eyes as you stand here deciding on whether to kill me or not. The best part of a hunt, I find, is the part where you catch your prey and kill it."

"Being an Eraser sure has given you a twisted and cruel outlook on life, Jake," I replied, "But no matter what you say to bait me… I can't kill my own brother."

I turned away from him, started heading back towards the others, wanting to see if Laura was still alive. The looks of shock on their faces registered a moment before my foresight and I saw the blade flying from behind me, aimed at my heart. I turned sideways to avoid the blade and found my body automatically responding to the attack, a throwing knife already leaving my hand and entering Jake chest. I saw the look of shock on his face as it entered, saw the recognition return to his eyes as he remembered a moment before he death, as everything flashed before his eyes. I ran up and caught him in my arms as he fell and held him. I felt the tears on his face as cried, his body shaking as it slowly died on him.

"I'm sorry Nathan," Jake replied, "I never meant for any of this to happen. Please forgive me, would you? Please?"

Jake closed his eyes for the final time, before he could even hear my response. I held onto his body, feeling the warmth leave him as his heart stopped beating and the blood began to cool. I felt wetness on my cheeks and realized I had begun to cry. I placed Jake on the ground, arranging his hands on his chest, preparing him for death and knelt over him.

"I forgive you Jake," I replied, "Although I should be the one asking for forgiveness. I never meant to hurt you, never meant to kill you. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Jake… I'm sorry."

My tears began to flow as I cried. I couldn't help it, couldn't stop the flow. I had killed my own brother because they had forced me to, because they had made us enemies and erased his memories. It was because of them I was now here kneeling over my dead brothers body, crying. After a few minutes the numbness set in as the last part of my past slowly went. I was no longer Nathan Corway, not the Nathan Corway who had lived with his brother and sister in their house, the Nathan Corway who went to school and had the girls chasing him. He died in that clearing with his brother. I pulled my ID out of the walled I had in my jean pocket. Somehow I had forgotten it was in there. I threw the ID card onto Jake body and ordered Cass to burn it. I could mourn for him later; I didn't plan on burying two people I cared about tonight.

"Where is the nearest hospital?" I asked Dean, taking Laura from his arms and checking for a pulse. IT was weak, but there was still one there.

"Wait!" He exclaimed, "You don't plan on taking her there do you?"

"Just tell me!" I ordered, "I don't plan on saying goodbye to two people I care about tonight. Now tell me!"

"Fifty miles southwest of here," Dean replied, "Nathan…"

"Hold tight and don't let go," I replied, "I'm not sure if I can do this more than once."

"Wha-?" Cass began, but didn't finish. I felt the swelling of darkness around me, the energy flowing through me. People talked about the speed of light, but there is one thing faster than the speed of light, and that was darkness. I felt it roll around me, felt myself propelled forward at speeds I thought would never exist. I hear Keira call our, but to late as she was left behind. Everything passed by us in a blur until light penetrated the bubble around us. We stood in the emergency department of the hospital, Laura held in my arms bleeding from a sword wound, people around us slowed down and stopped to look at the four winged kids who suddenly appeared in the room.

"Can somebody help us?" I begged, the exhaustion and loss of blood from my arm finally got to me and I collapsed to my knees, "Please… somebody help us…"

_**Chapter 52**_

I knelt on the ground, holding my hand over Laura's wound, feeling her heart beat not far from it, beating, but growing weaker and weaker as her blood soaked her shirt and mine, as if flowed out of the wound. I had my hand pressed against it to stop the flow of blood, but all it did was slow the flow. I hoped it would be enough to save her. She looked so pale, her limp form in my arms felt as if it were made of glass and one wrong move and she would shatter, taking with her the pieces of my broken heart. I didn't want to lose her, I couldn't. Ever since she came into my life I had felt complete, but if I should lose her, I would feel hollow and empty.

People were looking at us, no-one was moving to help us, all of them were staring at the kids covered in blood and had wings on their back. I was beginning to feel faint, my head was spinning and the world swam, but I shook my head to clear my vision. I looked down at the cut on my arm, it was much deeper than I thought, and I had lost a bit more blood than I guessed I would have by now. I heard a shout down the corridor and a person raced up to us, a doctor by the name tag on her coat.

"What happened to her?" She asked. I was still too light headed to answer properly, "Hey kid, what happened to her?"

"Sw-sword wound, to the left lung," I managed to reply, "Close to the heart. I think it might have severed an artery."

"What the heck?" The doctor whispered, "On you way to a party or something? How the heck did she get attacked by a sword?"

"I…I can't remember," I lied.

"Well we need to get her out of this angel costume she's wearing," The doctor replied, "It'll make things easier to deal with then."

"It's not a costume," I whispered softly, so only she would hear, "The… the wings are real. Please help us…please."

I expected shock or stunned disbelief from the doctor, but what was more shocking was how she reacted, totally calm about it, as if she had seen it before. The world began to spin again and I found myself shaking then the world went reeling and I fell to the floor, blacking out from the loss of blood.

When I woke, I was in a hospital bed in a private room. Cass and Dean were on seats nearby. I felt a stinging in and realized I had an IV drip attached to a needle in the back of my hand. My arm was bandaged, but red was already showing through the bandages. I looked around the room and found that it was like every other hospital room I had been in during my previous life before I became a winged kid. I then spotted a clock on the wall and saw three hours had passed. I began to struggle out of the bed, pulling the IV drip out of my hand and stood up, only to have the room spin and I collapsed. The noise woke Dean and Cass up and they helped me back onto the bed.

"Laura?" I asked, "Where's Laura?"

"She's still in surgery," Dean replied, "The doctor is taking care of the wound. They managed to stabilize her condition, but they required a blood transfusion. Cass was the only one with the same Blood type as her. Since then we've been waiting for an update as to what is happening."

The door opened and the doctor walked in, pulling a bed in after her. Laura lay on the bed hooked up to a heart monitor and a tube to supply oxygen to help her breathe. There was a bandage around her chest where the wound had been repaired and stitched up. Blood was already apparent on the white bandage. He wings were folded at the most comfortable angle for when we sleep on our backs and I watched her sleep. She had regained some colour from the blood transfusion, but she still looked a bit pale. The nurses left the room and the doctor turned to us. I prepared some explanation, but didn't need to.

"I though I wouldn't have to see any more of your kind," The doctor replied, "but I guess I was wrong. I suppose you have questions that you want me to answer, so how about we settle on a trade. You tell me your story, how you got involved in this mess, and I'll explain how I know about your kind, deal?"

I nodded my head and lay back on the bed as the room began to wobble again. The doctor walked over and reattached the IV drip to my hand.

"It'll pay to keep that in," She said, "At least until you make up for the blood you lost. It wasn't safe to give you human blood, so I just gave you an IV drip to replenish your fluids. Now, explain to me how the heck she ended up in such a sorry state."

I heaved a sigh and looked up at the ceiling, collecting my thoughts before I told her anything. After I had gathered all I needed to, I looked back at her, took a deep breath and told her of everything that had happened from the beginning, starting with the dream…


	28. Chapter 53 & 54

_**Chapter 53**_

"Most of my life," I explained, "I've been able to see things before they happen. About three months ago, give or take a month, I started seeing a girl in my dreams. She was lying on the track and a train was approaching. A few days later, while walking home from school, I found my dream to be real. That's how I met Laura. After that, things kind of went through the blender."

I explained to her what had happened to us at my house, about the attack by the Erasers, about us being captured and being sent to Haven. I told her what they did to me, how they changed me, the exercises they put me through, the 'training' I had been forced to take part of. I explained to her of our escape from Haven and the fight that ensured with the Erasers, where I found out my brother had been transformed into an Eraser. It seemed that Dr. Susan Yeats, as she was called, had encountered Erasers, but only in their human form. I told her of our flight away from there, into the wilderness and then about the events that happened in there leading up to how Laura ended up being wounded. What interested be though, was the fact that Dr. Susan seemed to know Keira, or at least recognize the name.

"Now that I've explained who we are and how we got here," I said, "do you mind telling us how you know about our kind and everything that is going on?"

"About three or four months ago," Susan began, "I was working a late shift here at the hospital. I was the only doctor on at that time of night, along with about three nurses, when a girl and her older brother came into the emergency department. The girl had been shot in her left shoulder; the guy looked like he had been mauled by a wolf on his right forearm. The boy's wound was, although messy to look at, easy to set right, a few stitches and some bandages."

"The girl, on the other hand," Susan continued, "her wound was more severe than at first look. The bullet had entered her shoulder and shattered the collar bone into three pieces before it exited her shoulder and clipped her wing. It was while I examined the shoulder that I found out about the wings. To be honest, at first I thought it was some sort of angel costume. I went to examine it and the girl pulled back. I saw blood on my hand from the wing and could believe it. It wasn't a costume, the wings were real. I put my astonishment aside and continued helping the girl out, pretending as if she was a normal patient with a bullet wound. I was able to set her collar bone back into place, but it was more difficult since your bones are hollow. You're metabolisms are faster than normal, so that explained the quick healing, but still it would require time for the girl to heal. I could tell her brother didn't like this, but he backed off when she said it was alright."

"The girl explained who she was and how she had received the wounds," Susan continued, "But she was reluctant to tell me how she came to be like she was. I let her be and left her to heal, but made sure access to her was restricted to people who had my permission, but even then, I was the only one to know they had wings. Eventually, the day before they left, the girl told me everything, about Haven, the place where she was born and experimented on. She explained how her DNA had been altered before birth to give her the wings and the other differences. The next day she was gone, her brother with her and there was no sight of them. I wouldn't have believed it, but they had left one thing behind. A feather. They left in on the dresser with a note addressed to me. The note had said whether you choose to believe us or not will make no difference, but speak to no-one of what you know, your life could be in danger. It was signed with one name…"

"Keira," A voice replied from the doorway. I turned my head from Susan to look at the new figure who had arrived in the doorway. It was Keira, "It was signed by me," She finished, "To thank her for what she had done and to warn her. Glad to see you are still alive, Susan."

"Glad to see you are still alive and well," Susan replied, "As for believing you? Well it's getting harder and harder to ignore now that more and more people like you are showing up. Mind you I think I believed it when you first told me I still have the feather. You never mentioned you had a sister."

"She's not my sister," Keira replied, "I don't even know who she is anymore. She was a clone of me, trained to kill me. But now I don't know why she still lives. They want to kill her, I can't trust her."

"You may not care for her, Keira," I replied, "But I do. She's no longer the girl that was sent to kill you. That person died the day she fought you. Laura…Laura only wants to fit in, she only wants to live, if you'd just let her."

"You said clone?" Susan replied, "That might explain it. I used a sample of DNA from Laura as you called her and examined it. There was something different about her. I then took a sample from your wounds, um…"

"Nathan," I replied, "My names Nathan."

"Anyway, Nathan," Susan replied, "I took a sample of your blood and compared the two. Even if Laura survives the wound she received, I'm not sure she'll survive any longer than another week or two."

"Why not?" I replied, suddenly alarmed, "Is something wrong?"

"It's her telomeres," Susan replied, "The section of DNA that controls the lifespan of a living being. Nathan, yours and Keira's are perfectly healthy, but Laura's is shorter, as if in her life of seventeen years, she has experienced almost three times that. In short, Nathan, Laura is dying. Unless her telomeres can be repaired, which would require state-of-the-art science equipment and a healthy telomere to replace it with; she will die within the next two weeks."

_Laura,_ I thought, _Laura… I can't lose you._

_**Chapter 54**_

"But would something like that work?" Dead asked, speaking for the first time since I had woken up, "I mean most of us were altered while we were still embryos. Trying to alter the genetic information at the age we are now… well Nathan, you could explain it better than I could."

"As I finished explaining before," I replied, "I was once human, a normal teenager going to a normal school… until I met Laura. During my stay at Haven, I was injected twice. The first was part of a gene therapy, where they altered my DNA using a viral protein coat to infect the cells and replace my DNA with the restructured human bird combination, but for that they required an original blood sample from me. After that all they required to do was alter the DNA, place it in the viral protein coats and inject it into me, where the gene therapy virus would infect the cells and replace the old DNA with the new stuff."

"It doesn't sound too hard," Susan replied, "They way you say it makes it sound easy."

"It may sound easy," I explained, "but even if you have the right equipment to do it with, it also depends on the health of the patient and how quickly the DNA is able to be altered before the body picks up on the changes and rejects them. My experience… well I can tell you it wasn't pretty and at times I wasn't sure if I could even survive it. The body goes through changes, my bone structure, muscle structure and neurological pathways were literally re-written in a matter of days, and my body was left to catch up over the weeks. It felt as if someone had filled my veins with molten steel. The second time was when my mother tried to 'cure' my foresight. All it did was remove my natural eye colour and change it to blue. I experienced a minor headache and some unconsciousness, but other than that, I was fine."

"How do you know all of this?" Susan asked, "Do you even know what effects it could have on Laura?"

"To answer your first question," I replied, "I used to study Genetics when I went to school. Did even after I was kept at Haven, but because of the re-written neurological pathways, I was able to understand more. I was interested in how they were doing this so I began to look things up on the internet. I found a backdoor around Haven's security sensors while surfing the net for things. I came up with a few theories and some facts as well. Gene therapy was the best bet. People were capable of doing it, but it had never been tested on human patients, the people at Haven were doing it illegally.

"As for your second question," I continued, "The effects on Laura… I can't really predict. This has never been tested. What we are trying to do is reset Laura's biological clock so that she can regenerate her cells to their proper health. What we are talking about is prolonging life beyond its normal length. The effects could be minor or major. It could be nothing more than stiff joints, or it could be worse than that. The body may pick up on the alterations before they are done and a war will break out in her body - the cells will start attacking each other. It could result in death. If her body cannot handle the strain of having the DNA altered, she could die from it."

"So, we are talking about major risks here," Susan replied, "I can tell you the most sensible way of going here, but I can tell you won't let her die peacefully. You'd try and save her, won't you?"

"But why?" Keira replied, "Why do you want to save her, Nathan, was it? She was cloned to be my replacement, made to kill me and who knows what else. How can you trust her?"

"Because I have spent the past three months of my life stuck in captivity at Haven," I replied, "With Laura and Dean as my only company. Because I see no similarities in the way she behaves compared to you. She is no longer you're clone, Keira, but her own person. After the battle where she fought with you, she had no sense of self. All she wanted to do was die, and she was going to let them kill her. But emotion won and took over; she couldn't face the fear of dying. She wanted to live, just like everyone else, to experience life anew where she could feel emotion of her own free will. But the main reason why I cannot let her die, Keira, is because over the past three months I have fallen in love with her."

The room had gone silent after my little outburst. Not many people had know what I had gone through and after the loss of sleep and loss of blood; I finally ended up letting it all out. I couldn't come to face losing her because I had come to know the real her, because I had felt complete when she was in my life. Losing her, would be like losing a part of me. I think all my humanity was gone, but losing Laura would end me. I would just be an empty shell of who I used to be. I lay me head back on the pillow and let them ponder what I said, including Keira. It was about time she stopped judging based on the past and judge based on the present. I was relieved when I wasn't the next person to speak. Even more relieved to hear her voice.

"Now I know how you felt when Dean and I were discussing escaping with or without you," Laura whispered. Her voice was weak, but it was better than her remaining lifeless. "You may not be willing to take the risk, but I sure am. I don't want to be lying in a hospital bed for the last week of my life, afraid of death. Do what you have to do; I won't stop you… but Nathan, if this doesn't work out…"

"It will," I replied, wanting to believe it with every fibre of my being, "it has to, Laura. I can't lose you, not after I've lost almost everyone else. It would destroy me."

"I know," Laura replied, "that's why I want you to promise me, that if this doesn't work out, you will continue living for me. Promise?"

"I…" I began, "I promise Laura. I'll continue living for you."

"And Keira," Laura said, "I know what I've done in the past is wrong. It's what I was lead to believe my life was meant to be for. They made me feel no emotion and so I didn't feel regret in doing it, but after I started feeling again, I… I wanted to apologise to you and I hope that we could get along, if not identical sisters, then at least friends?"

"Don't count on it," Keira replied, but I could tell she was thinking about it, "Some wounds run too deep."

"Right," I said, "Now that we've sorted that out, I think I have a plan…"


	29. Chapter 55 & 56

_**Chapter 55**_

Laura lay on the bed, listening to Nathan's plan. She felt so exhausted and sore. She was surprised she had survived the sword wound, if a little more force had been applied to the strike, it would have gone through her. Even now she could still feel the sword as it punctured her lung; she could still feel the cold metal blade as it slid between her ribs. If it had been a few more centimetres to the left it would have pierced her heart. She could feel the wound healing. _Is this what it's like to die when your body can't handle any more?_ She though, _does it just start shutting down, just goes to sleep and never wakes up? All I want to do is sleep; I'm so exhausted from everything. But I can't sleep, I can't give in. I may be dying, but not without a fight. _

Laura had heard them talking about how she was sick, how she was dying. She had heard Nathan's theory about saving her. But it was only a theory; it had never been tested, let alone looked into. This sort of thing had never been tested, there was no way to know if it would work or not. Then there was Keira. _I don't know if I will be around to get to know her, _She thought, _I won't get to know the person I was forced to pretend to be, I'll never be able to set things right._

"You want us to do what?" Laura woke to Keira shouting and realized she must have fallen asleep again.

"It's the only way we can get what we need to save Laura," Nathan replied calmly and coolly.

"There is no way in heck I am going back there willingly to save _her_," Keira replied, "I would never willingly go back to Haven again, not for anything."

"Not even for any member of your flock, which you haven't even introduced us to?" Nathan replied, "Now that's self-centred, even for the original of Laura, just proving you are different. But I never said you had to come. I was just asking to see if you wanted to… plus it would be easier with the more people we had, but I don't want it getting too big, otherwise the whitecoats will start to notice. Susan, you think you can prepare everything for when we come back?"

"If you come back," Susan replied.

"When we come back," Nathan replied, "I don't plan on dying or being captured, not again anyway."

Laura sat up stiffly in the bed, everyone's attention turning towards her. She shook her head at the arguments and the statements they were saying at each other.

"Thanks for everything you guys," Laura said, "Keira, Nathan, can I talk to you… alone?"

There was a moment of silence before everyone figured what she was going to say was only for them to hear, and then everyone in the room except for Nathan and Keira left, leaving them alone to talk.

"Nathan," Laura began, "Nathan, doesn't do this; don't risk yourself to save me. I'd rather see you alive and well, living your life, rather than locked up in a cage back at Haven or ending up dead. But knowing you, you'll do it anyway, so don't go getting yourself killed ok? But Nathan, I want you to promise me, if this doesn't work out, don't do anything drastic, just look after them, live your life, if not for you, then for me."

"And Keira…" Laura continued, "Get over you're stuck up, over inflated ego and your stubborn personality and let go of the past. All of us were forced to do things we didn't want to do by the Whitecoats, you especially know how that feels, remember Dawn, your younger sister? Remember what the Whitecoats made you do to her? They made you fight and kill her, why? Because she was an Eraser, an enemy of the flock. Nathan had to just kill his younger brother to save me; he knows what it's like, so if you can't trust my judgement, trust his. I've lived a life knowing I had to do what the Whitecoats wanted me to do otherwise they'd kill me, but after our fight, I found a way to live again and to take a risk and escape.

"So please, Keira," Laura finished, "If you don't want to do it to save me, then do it to get back at the Whitecoats. We all want a piece of them for what they did, but Nathan giving you a chance to cause a little distraction while he gets what he needs. Don't tell me you can't pass that up."

"I'll be back, Laura," Nathan said as she lay back on the pillows, "I promise."

"I know you will," Laura replied. After that she fell asleep again, but this time, it was uncertain if she'd wake up ever again…

_**Chapter 56**_

_That stuck up little princess, _Keira thought, _who does she think she is, talking to me like that, calling me stuck up and stubborn? She's the one who tried to kill me; she shouldn't even exist, so why does he love her? Why is he willing to risk everything to save her? Wait, am I jealous? Of her? _

"Keira!" A voice called out from down the Corridor, "The others are here, they are worried about you. Why'd you run off on us?"

"I had some unfinished business to take care of, Ryan," Keira replied, "But all it did was remind me of why I despise the whitecoats. Maybe she was right. Maybe it's time to let go of the past… but I can never forgive them for what they did to Dawn."

"Keira," Ryan said, "you're not making sense. You need to get some rest. I know you haven't been sleeping well."

"I'm fine, Ryan," Keira replied, "It won't make sense because you took your time getting here."

"Well I had to go get the others you left behind," Ryan replied, "You took off without much warning. What were you doing?"

"Chasing a ghost from the past," Keira sighed. Her vision began to blur and she shook her head to clear it again, "Let's go see the others. I'll need to explain what is going on right now."

Keira began to walk down the corridor, Ryan following her, but returning to his normal quiet self. When he went like that it was always hard to get him to talk beyond a few words at a time. For some reason, the only person he talked to was Keira. On the way to the main reception Keira passed a small waiting room, or something along those lines, and saw Nathan, Cass and Dean in the room. Nathan was explaining to them what was going on. When she walked past he turned to look her and she nodded her head, only slightly to let him know. She had made up her mind, she was going to help.

She continued down the corridor and reached the main reception to find the rest of her flock; her family were waiting for her. She smiled when she saw Derek and Courtney, the twins, asleep on the chairs. They were only ten years old and Keira had adopted them, taking care of them in Haven and once they escaped. She had looked after them since they were mere toddlers. Both had blond hair, green eyes and grey and white wings. Derek's hair was cut short, standing up in little spikes while Courtney's was long and came down to the middle of her back, but was kept together in a braid.

Sitting, watching over them, was Sierra. She was fifteen and had amber coloured eyes that reminded her of the Erasers ' eyes. It was her ability that made her eyes like that. She could take on the form of any animal as long as she's been in contact with that animal. As it so happened she had an Eraser form in the mix somewhere. She had short hair that hung around her shoulders and sometimes shrouded her eyes as she turned quickly. As Keira entered she looked at her then gently woke the twins up.

_Nice to see you again, Keira,_ The fifth and final member of her flock said, sending the message telepathically. His name was Aaron and he had been born mute. However he was telepathic, so he could talk using his mind. He had mop like silver hair on his head. He dyed it silver just to be different from people. At the moment he had streaks of blue through it, but who knows a month from know it might be green, red or even purple. He always changed it if she let him, even if she doesn't he still changes it, just not letting her know until he returned.

"You sure disappeared in a hurry," Sierra said, "What was so important you had to run off like that?"

"I had a ghost from the past to catch up with," Keira replied, "Listen you guys, what would you say if I told you we had a chance to get some major payback at the whitecoats?"

_Hmmm, _Aaron said, _I wouldn't say anything. I can't talk remember?_

"Don't be smart, Aaron," Keira replied, "I'm being serious. Nathan wants to save Laura and he wants our help in doing so. He wants us to cause a diversion. I was thinking about a grand finale for Haven, what do you say?"

"I'd say I don't like that smile on your face," Derek replied.

"She's thinking something really evil," Sierra replied, "Aren't you Keira?"

"I'm planning an early sunrise at Haven," Keira replied.

"What about Laura?" Ryan asked, speaking one of his rare sentences.

"We'll deal with her," Keira replied, "If we need to…"


	30. Chapter 57 & 58

_**Authors Note:** Hey everyone. Thanks for reviewing my story I have a new Oneshot called I chose you posted up and would like people to review on it. It's a single chapter based from the characters of this story, but has nothing to do with the story line. Reviews would be great._

_**  
**_

* * *

_**Chapter 57**_

"Nathan," Keira said from the doorway, "We're here."

I looked up at her and saw the rest of her flock was with her. There were two kids, aged about ten to twelve years old, they looked to be twins, but I wasn't sure. A girl, about the age of fifteen or sixteen, stood behind them as if watching over them. She turned her head in my direction when Keira spoke and for a moment I saw a glimpse of her eyes and it gave me the chills. Those eyes looked just like an Erasers. I saw them for a brief second and then they were gone, but it still unnerved me. Standing next to Keira was another member of her flock. He stood protectively by her side, but never said anything. He had short, light brown hair and dark green eyes, those eyes looked at me as if looking down at someone who was inferior to him. I took an immediate dislike to that guy. Standing at the back was the final member, he had mop like silver hair and seemed to be the quietest of the lot.

"This is Ryan," Keira continued, pointing to the guy I didn't like, "then there is the twins Derek and Courtney. That's Sierra and the one at the back is Aaron, he was born mute, but he can still talk."

"Let me guess," I said, "Telepathic? Dean is as well."

_Really?_ Aaron said speaking for the first time since I saw him, _well that's interesting. He's able to hide it well. _

"Then there is Cassandra," I continued, pretending like I hadn't heard Aarons comment, "She's a Pyro, you want explosions, she's the one to go to."

"Now that the introductions are over," Ryan said, "What's this plan of yours? Keira gave us an outline, but we'll need details."

"Fine," I replied, "During my stay at Haven, I was able to getting my hands on the blueprints of the facility."

"So where are they now?" Ryan asked.

"In my head," I replied, "I'm not stupid enough to try and make a copy of the blueprints, they could have found that. With the recent outbreak of captives from the place, they should still be constructing a new wall in the dormitories. Three people will get in that way and cause a diversion, releasing the remaining experiments, perhaps trashing the labs. Cass and one or two other person are going in through the front door, we're still looking for volunteers that want to cause massive damage to the whitecoats living quarters. Keira, you and one person will be accompanying me into the heart of Haven, that's where they keep what I'm looking for, plus I have a score to settle with the Whitecoat in charge."

"You sure like to take care of things," Sierra said, "Sure it's not a personal reason."

"It's as personal as it gets," I replied, "I used to be human until he decided to change me, then he made my brother an Eraser. My sister died during the transformation, my brother was killed by my own hands. So yeah, I'd like to thank him for ruining the family by paying him back the favor he did to me."

"Kind of like what they did to you," Derek said, "Right Keira?"

"So did you meet him personally?" Keira asked.

"Meet him personally?" I asked, then cracked a smile, "Man, you have no idea. I was his son, but his research is more important than his family. Same deal with my mother. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have parents."

"Then how do we know we can trust you?" Ryan asked.

"Because," I replied, "If I was working for them, I could have killed you three times by now, but haven't. Trust me, my father is really ticked off, he doesn't care if you are bought back dead or alive. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I want to stick a bullet in his head for what he did to Laura."

"Laura this and Laura that," Keira replied, "Nathan keep your head on the mission."

_Sounds like someone is jealous, _Aaron replied, _take it easy on him Keira, he's in love with her, besides I like him. Why is it we've been in hiding the entire time we're free, yet it takes him, a former Human, to come up with a plan to strike back? _

"Because I've been trying to keep you guys alive," Keira replied.

"Sounds like not everyone agrees with you, Keira," I said, "Maybe you should listen to them more often. Now getting back on topic, anything you guys need to ask questions about?"

"Yeah," Sierra replied, "How do we get near the place without anyone seeing us?"

"That's simple," I replied, "I can use my powers to shroud us in darkness so we won't be seen by anyone."

"When will the attack begin?" Ryan asked.

"Sunset," I replied, "It's too close to dawn now. My powers are at their weakest during the day unless I'm close to dark areas."

_**Chapter 58**_

Keira left soon after they finished talking. She couldn't be around anyone right now, not right at that moment. _Why is it that he keeps bringing out the jealousy and anger all the time?_ She thought, _I always feel so lost around him, always unsure of myself. Why? Why does he make me feel that way? I can't do this anymore, I can't take care of the flock, not the way I am. They'd be better off without me now. They like _him_ better… and there's Laura. Everything is about Laura now. I thought she was dead, that I could get on with my life and now she's here, taking away everything I hold dear. I hate her!_

"I hate her," Keira whispered, coming to a stop and resting her head against the wall. A single tear began to fall down her face. "I hate her; she's taking everything away from me."

Keira placed her back against the wall, her wings held tight against her back and sat on the floor, her head resting on her knees and began to cry. She hadn't cried since her sister died, since she was forced to kill Dawn. All this did was remind her of all that again. There was laughter from back down the hall. It seemed all of them were getting along, but the tension was still there. She couldn't take it anymore, not facing all her emotions again. She had been running from them too long and she was too afraid to face them now. She pushed herself up off the ground and began to run down the corridor, but a hand grabbed hers.

"What's wrong, Keira?" Ryan asked her, "What's going on?"

"Just leave me alone," Keira said, "Just go away."

"I won't let you run again, Keira," Ryan said, "You run away too much."

"Just leave," Keira replied, "Let me run. Just go and leave like everyone else has!"

"Do what you want, Keira," Ryan replied, "I'm not going to stop you. But is it what you want to do?"

"I don't know what I want, Ryan," Keira replied, "I honestly don't know."

"You need to make a choice, Keira," Ryan replied, "I don't like Nathan, but perhaps that's because he reminds me of me, is willing to do anything to keep the ones he cares for safe. But he's reckless; he hasn't been like us for as long as us. He said he was once human. Also he's Andrew Corway's son. Can we trust him?"

"He's genuine," Keira replied, "I can tell by the look in his eyes. I know it too well. I used to have that look. I still have it. It's where you're empty inside, where you have nothing left. But Nathan is different, he has Laura."

"It sounds like you are jealous of him, Keira," Ryan replied, "Are you?"

"Yeah," Keira replied, "I think I am. He's got life much simpler than we do. I think what bothers me the most is how close they are."

"It's not how close all of them are," Ryan replied, "Is it? It's how close Nathan and Laura are. You have feelings for him, don't you?"

"I guess my clone got one thing right," Keira replied, "Same taste in guys. I admit, I feel physically attracted to him, but beyond that? I don't know."

"It's best to forget about him," Ryan replied, "Just focus on getting revenge on the ones who keep hunting us down. Focus on giving the whitecoats heck."

"Gee," Keira replied sarcastically, "Thanks for the tip."

_It'll be harder than you think, Ryan, _Keira thought, _a lot harder._ She stood up from off the ground and wiped the tears from her face. _I hate being insecure, _Keira thought, _but Nathan just… he just gets to me. Am I that attracted to him? Forget him Keira, he's not worth it._

"Let's go back," Keira said, "I think it's time I got to re-connect with the flock. I think I've been trying to keep them safe for so long that I forgot to have fun with them, especially Derek and Courtney."

"Yeah," Ryan replied, "They've been missing the old you. The one that read them bedtime stories, that played games with them. You need to show your soft side once in a while, Keira."

"I'll remember that," Keira replied, "It's been a long time since I was that girl."

_Well that's that crisis over,_ Keira thought, _at least for now. Now what about this finale I was planning for Haven? _

"Hey Ryan," Keira replied, "Do you know where I can find a large amount of explosives?"

"Nathan did say to go to Cass for explosions," Ryan replied, "I may not like him, but if Cass is a Pyro, we could make things interesting."

"Now there's an idea," Keira replied, smiling, "I wonder if she can do what I think she can…"


	31. Chapter 59 & 60

**_Authors note:_** _ok people I am sorry this took so long to get to you. I have been busy with exams and other stories I've got up all over the place and I will be a bit more busy in two weeks with my Exam. So please bear with me_

_And a warning, this story is coming to a close._

**Chapter 59**

The night air whipped around us as we flew back to the place of our nightmares. The moon was full, illuminating the ground below in a pale ghostly light, but nothing penetrated the shroud of darkness I had formed around us. We had stayed up in the mountain cave I had used while escaping until the night was full and then had left. I looked forward into the night and saw the harsh electric glow of the lights from Haven. As I had guessed, the wall that had been blown away was still under construction.

Derek and Aaron split from the flock and went in low, sweeping in barely above the cliff face, but low enough to avoid detection from anyone. As we drew closer, Cass, Courtney and Sierra split from the flock and lead the main distraction. That left me, Ryan, Dean and Keira. On the roof during my stay, I had noticed that the main cafeteria had a skylight in it, but was reinforced with solid steel bars. Too bad they forgot that Ryan could manipulate the metal with his mind.

The skylight began to crack as the beams bent, then chunks began to fall out and crash into the cafeteria below. There was a shrieking and much twisting then the beams broke free from the roof and flew for a brief few seconds before coming to land on the guard house at the front entrance. I sincerely hoped no-one got hurt… yeah right. We dove in through the now open skylight and into the Cafeteria, to find it entirely deserted. It left us unnerved that no Erasers had rushed to the Cafeteria when the glass began to break.

"Be prepared for anything," I warned them, "Something's not right here."

We moved carefully through the corridors, leapfrog tactics used, one person moved ahead of the previous one, while the other two provided back up until the person in last was first, then it started again. The corridors were empty and the lights were off. I kept getting the feeling that something wasn't right. The hair on the back of my neck was prickling. We arrived at the labs and I quickly scanned the room and my hopes fell right away. The Lab had been trashed, vials lay on the benches and floor, their contents spilled into foul smelling and lethal mixtures that had burnt holes in the ground.

I stepped around these and headed for the refrigerated containers kept in the cooler at the back of the room. There was a faint hum coming from the cooler and I realized the power for it was still on. I pulled it open and searched for the drug I had heard my mother mention before. It was in the bottom right hand drawer. I pulled it open… only to find that it had been emptied. I turned back to the mess on the lab floor and realized that many of the tubes were from different experiments, but they also had tubes of the gene therapy that I needed. It had all been destroyed.

We heard the sound of footsteps outside the room and prepared for battle as they came rushing closer and closer. The doors burst open and I almost fired a dark bullet at them, until I realized it was Derek and Aaron. A moment later Cass, Sierra and Courtney appeared.

"They're right on our heels," Sierra replied, "Erasers and a ton of them. I suggest we get out of here as soon as possible."

"What the heck happened here?" Cass asked.

"It was like this when we arrived," I replied, moving for the door, "There's nothing left anymore. We have to get out of here before…"

I didn't get to finish my sentence as we reached an intersection of the corridors and found ourselves surrounded on three sides by Erasers waiting in ambush and a fourth group following up from behind us. We were trapped.

"Well done, Nathan," A voice spoke, "Well done indeed."

"Andrew Corway," I replied coldly, "I should have guessed. You ordered the stuff in the labs destroyed, but you knew I'd come back for something to cure Laura. So here I am."

"What no 'Hello Father' greeting?" Andrew asked, "Oops, I suppose they didn't know that did they?"

"I'm one step ahead of you there," I replied, "They already know. Now what did you do with the gene therapy?"

"Ah yes," Andrew said, and pulled something from his pocket, "I'm afraid this is the only vial left. But I don't intend to give ti to you, unless you are willing to make a deal. Keira in exchange for Laura's life. How does that sound?"

"Shove the offer where the sun don't shine," I replied, "I'm not trading anyone to save Laura. You wouldn't hold your end of the deal anyway. You'd have us all killed, except for Keira who you'd drag out the information from, then kill her."

"Well," Andrew said, "I definitely wasn't expecting that answer. So I suppose you don't want this anymore?"

He lifted the vial of the gene therapy liquid and threw it into the air. It spun and climbed for a few seconds before it began its kamikaze dive for the ground. I dove for it and four squads of Erasers raised their guns and prepared to fire…

_**Chapter 60**_

I closed my eyes as the guns fired. I felt heat around me, but there was not searing hot pain as the bullets hit and I wondered why I wasn't hurt. I opened my eyes, to find a wall of fire surrounded us on one side and both Aaron and Dean were holding up telekinetic shields on two other sides. Ryan held a wall of bullets on the fourth. I realized I was holding onto the vial tightly and loosened my grips slightly, so as not to break it.

I looked back at my father and saw shock on his face. I felt all my anger and hatred coil inside of me and I didn't really care what happened to him now, I really didn't. I let go of the vial with one hand and felt the familiar coolness as the gun formed in my hand. I lifted it and pointed it at my father.

"You' can't do it, Nathan," Andrew said, "You can't kill your own father. No matter how much you hate me, I know you better than you know yourself."

"I doubt that," I replied, "I doubt that a lot. You were never around to know me. I buried you long ago, after you staged your death, now I have no problem killing someone who is already dead."

"Let's go," Cass replied, "We've got what we came for and the other prisoners are free. Ryan's pretty sure he can make the building implode on itself. We're finished here."

"Cassandra," Andrew replied, "It's a shame to hear your brother was killed. Some Erasers got annoyed that you turned and took it out on him. Too bad he didn't survive."

Cass turned back to my father, but this time, I didn't even recognize her. This was the first time I had ever seen her angry. Her eyes and started to glow orange, and her hair had turned to fire. He fists curled at her sides and suddenly fire surrounded them. I was the first to notice the temperature in the building increasing and then the faint whisper.

"Run, Nathan," Cass said, "Run."

She burst into flames so bright it looked like she had become a mini sun. I couldn't look at her directly and the temperature had risen close to unbearable. The Erasers were backing off and so was Andrew, but Cass seemed to be focused on one thing and one thing only, revenge. The floor beneath her began to melt and I felt the air around us begin to scorch from the heat as well and decided to listen and ran. The rest of us followed soon after and we began to run until we had reached the half repaired wall and jumped out through the hole. We plummeted towards the ground until, at the last second, we spread our wings and let the air currents lift us back up.

"We have to go back for her," Dean replied, "We can't leave her there."

"We have to," Keira replied, "She's already passed the stage of no return. A Pyro has a limit as to how hot they can go before they are fully consumed by fire. When that happens they have about thirty seconds to cool off otherwise the go supernova. The area around them will be scorched and if it isn't quarantined properly, could cause some serious damage to the area. Supernova's can scorch the very air around the person."

"So we'll be brunt to a crisp if we even try," I replied, "But a Pyro going supernova? I've never heard of that before."

"Because when Pyros do that," Keira said, "They raise their core body temperature far higher than it should ever go. Cass is the highest I've ever seen it go before while she's…"

Keira trailed off and I looked back at the building and saw the glow coming from inside, saw the melting of the building from the heat and I heard the screams, screams I wanted to block out but couldn't. Worst thought was the smell, it made me want to upchuck my dinner.

"While she's alive," I managed to say, "Pyros normally end up dead after doing this… don't they, Keira?"

"Normally there are no traces left to be identified," Keira replied, "They burn themselves up and become ash. That's what people think. No-one has ever figured that out. No-one can get close enough to watch it happen, not without burning."

Suddenly the building exploded behind us and debris became a deadly rain. Twisted steel beams and droplets of melted steel flew through the air, either crushing or burning anything it came in contact with. A blast wave of heat pressed onto us, forcing us along for the ride. We found it hard to breathe as the oxygen was sucked from the air around us to fuel the fiery column that had appeared where Haven had once existed. Once we were able to breathe again, we hovered in the air and watched as the column of fire slowly disappeared and all that was left of Haven was a giant crater in the ground, still cooling from molten lava back into rock. Heat still radiated from the crater, but that too was slowly disappearing, just as Cass had done, when the place had gone up in flames…


	32. Chapter 61 & 62

_**Chapter 61**_

The flight back the hospital was quiet and gloomy. No-one was willing to break the silence that hung over us, shadowing us, but it was on everyone's mind. How could it not be, after what we had just witnessed? I still had the images of the building exploding in my mind, could just imagine Cass standing there as the fire engulfed her. Upon seeing the images again, I blocked them out, not wanting to back down the track. Right now I was focusing on just getting back to the hospital in time to save Laura's life.

My wings were burning from the strain of flying by the time I saw the lights of the hospital on the horizon. Relief flooded through me upon seeing the sight and I folded my wings in close to me and dove for the building, landing on the outskirts of the parking lot, just outside of the lights, folded my wings and then covered them with my jacket I had hidden there before leaving.

I had barely covered my wings with my jacket when I walked in through the main entrance to the hospital, walked past the reception desk, leaving the receptionist running after us shouting that there were no visitors this close to midnight. I ignored her. I still held the vile in a death-like grip in my hand, but was not squeezing it incase I broke the vial. We arrived at Susan's office and found her still awake, working on files to cover where the drugs had been used and make sure no evidence of us being here existed. I saw the empty cups of coffee lying on the floor and in the rubbish bin and guessed she had been working on a caffeine rush. She turned to face us as we walked in and seemed to visibly relax upon seeing us return safe and sound. Then she noticed…

"Where's Cass?" She asked. No-one was willing to answer. "What happened to Cass?"

"The building went up in flames," I replied eventually, "We didn't see any survivors. Cass was still in there when it happened. Can you save Laura?"

"I'll need a blood sample from someone the same age as her," Susan replied, "So I can replace her telomeres with healthy ones. Someone related to her would be better, but anyone can do, although in her state, I'm not sure if she would survive."

I was ready to give my blood to save Laura, if Keira backed out. I almost expected her to back out, but she didn't. Instead she walked forward without a word, rolled her sleeve up, and presented Susan with her arm. When she saw the needle, she flinched and looked away, bad memories bought to the surface. I didn't know how badly, but I had an idea as to what they were. I looked around the small group of genetically different beings in this room, not a single one was willing to look at the needle. I didn't blame them. I had always hated needles, my experience at Haven only made that worse. The blood sample was taken; needle mark was barely even there a few seconds after it had been taken out. Keira rolled her sleeve down again and walked out without saying a word.

"It'll take me some time to put this together," Susan replied, "I have some people who might be able to help, but unless you have someone who knows how to get this made with typical hospital instruments, please speak up."

"Can I help?" Sierra asked, "I was always good with equipment. I'm sure I can get it at least started faster than the scientists could. So what equipment do you have here?"

Susan began to tell her a list of medical equipment they might be able to use for their experiment as they walked out of the office and down the hall. Everyone else was still either sitting or standing silently. I moved out the office and into the corridor, heading towards Laura's room. I stopped at the door and looked in. She lay quietly on the bed, alone and I moved in to sit next to her. She seemed so lifeless, an empty shell, it made me feel empty as well. The heart monitor beeped softly, keeping in rhythm with her heart. I held her hand in mine and silently hoped, perhaps even prayed for Laura to be alright, to keep her safe. I didn't want to let her go, not so soon after meeting her. There was still so much I wanted to learn about her, so much I didn't know.

A voice called for an emergency doctor over the hospital intercom, requesting help with a new inbound helicopter. It was apparently returning from a huge accident with one survivor. They came here because it was the closest hospital with the staff and equipment that could help this person. I switched on the news, but kept it low, not wanting to cause a lot of noise. On every station was the picture of the crater where Haven had used to be. It's cover had been a medical research facility. They blamed the explosion on carelessness of flammable chemicals. They said there was only one survivor. I was already out of the room before the reporter finished her sentence. I had raced down the corridor to the emergency room. Already two doctors were on the scene, one was Susan, and I guessed she had left Sierra with her permission to continue the work. The other was a male doctor, but I saw the name tag, a Dr Jason Yeats. _Her brother?_ I thought, _or her husband?_ I tried to walk up to get a closer look at the survivor, but none of the police guarding the survivor were letting me through. I saw a flash of long brown hair as they moved her, followed by a brief glimpse of her face and stood in shock. It couldn't be… not after that.

"Let me through," I shouted at the police, "Let me through! I know her."

Susan gave the policeman a look that could have peel skin off of his bones if it had a supernatural power behind it and he shrunk away from me, letting me pass. I rushed up next to her and looked down at Cass' face.

"I thought you said there were no survivors," Susan said.

"I thought there wasn't," I replied, "I never saw any survivors."

"So what happened to her?" Susan asked.

I didn't reply. I had just seen the answer on her wrist. On her wrist was a small birthmark, a bird surrounded by flames… a phoenix.

_**Chapter 62**_

I sat in the recovery room, Keira and Dean with me. All three of us were in shock, heck all of the flock members from Keira's flock were shocked she survived. I leaned against the wall to the room, Keira stood on the opposite side of the room as if afraid to be near me. Dean sat in the chair next to the bed. I didn't need to be a mind reader to see there was something between them. How long it had been there? Well between running for my life, protecting those close to me and, oh, let's not forget trying to make a miracle cure for Laura, I'm not quite sure. They were good at hiding it, but Dean… he sat by her bed, holding her hand in his, tracing his fingers over her birthmark.

"I'll leave you alone," I whispered to Dean, and headed towards the door. He didn't respond, but I knew he had heard me. I walked past Keira and exited the room, heading towards the nearest exit. I needed some fresh air and my wings were starting to get cramped. Hmph, my wings. I've gotten used to saying that now, yet only a few months ago, I was just like every other guy out there, struggling to pass high school, keeping the nutty girls at bay while trying to take care of my family. Now my family was gone. Danielle in the experimentation, Jake by my own hands, Mom, Dad, both dead from the explosion. All I had left was Laura, Dean and Cass. For a while I thought Cass was gone as well, but now… now she's sitting in the recovery room as if all she had done was got a bump on the head. Phoenix, her powers were beyond a Pyros, but a phoenix? As far as any of us experiments have known, there was never power like that, and birthmarks were prevented by the genetic manipulation.

I walked outside and past the few scattered cars in the parking lot until I was at the forest. The day was hot and the sun was brilliant in the sky. It was about ten in the morning. I hadn't gotten much sleep. I couldn't get much sleep, not with all that's going on. I walked through the shade of the trees until I reached a clearing, where I removed my sweater and stood with jeans and a t-shirt on. I spread my wings out to their full length of fifteen or sixteen feet from wingtip to wingtip. It felt good to stretch them out, hearing the muscles stretch, the joints extend. I felt the warm breeze blowing through the trees and it ruffled my feathers. I pumped my wings up and down, and lifted off the ground, flying through the skies, letting the wind blow away all my worries and thoughts. I lived in the air currents, letting them take me wherever they wanted me to go. I rose on the thermals of war air and gently glided down, only to be lifted by the next thermal. After a while, I gently glided back down to the clearing and picked my jacket up. There was the crunch of a twig behind me and I whirled around to find Keira standing there.

"Thought I'd take a flight," Keira said, "It looks like you beat me to it."

"The air currents are good," I replied, putting my jacket back over my folded wings, "Plenty of thermals, no need to flap your wings that much, you could probably glide to the next state."

I started walking back towards the hospital. Keira didn't move, she remained standing in my way. I moved to brush past her, but her hand grabbed my arm. I turned to look at her and saw the confusion on her face. We were so close to each other, just bare centimeters apart. She leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I broke the kiss and looked at her, surprised by what had just happened, surprised I had let it happen. On some lever I knew when she didn't move out of the way, but I didn't stop it till then.

"I'm sorry," whispered Keira, "I'm sorry, this was a mistake."

"Keira," I said, "Keira, what's going on? Why did you kiss me?"

"Laura's not the only one who's attracted to you," Keira replied bitterly, "she got her taste in guys from me. Nathan…just forget it. You've already made your choice."

She ran off into the trees, leaving me standing in the clearing wondering what the heck was going on. I was now stuck with two people who were attracted to me, looked the same, and now they were starting to act the same? What was going on here? My life was never this complicated when I was a normal teenager, plus my lips still tasted like strawberry lip gloss, Keira's lip gloss… Also Laura's...


	33. Chapter 63 & 64

_**Chapter 63**_

Keira ran through the trees, away from the clearing, away from Nathan. She had been a fool to give in to what she felt for him. She had known it was pointless even trying to see if he felt the same way. He was in love with Laura, it was always Laura. The whitecoats favoured Laura to her, they wanted Laura to kill her and take her place. Now Laura was back in her life, taking everything from her, even the guy she seemed to have fallen for.

"LIFE SUCKS!" She shouted towards the sky, leaping into the air and spreading her wings, tearing the sweater she was wearing as she did. She didn't care anymore. It seemed Laura was going to replace her sooner or later, one way or another. _I was a fool to think he would have feelings for me,_ Keira thought, _a fool._ She flew long and far, gliding on the thermals from the ground, the thermals that Nathan had told her about. Her thoughts went back to that moment in the clearing, when she had grabbed his wrist. _He didn't pull away, he didn't do anything, he just stood there. He knew, or at least suspected, that I might have tried something, so why didn't he pull away?_

She let loose another scream of confusion as she flew. Things just weren't making sense. She had feelings for Nathan, but she suspected he had feelings for her as well, both of them were confused, not sure what was going on between them. Tears of frustration began to fall down her face. She had no idea what she was going to do, just leave, have the flock follow her and leave them? Leave him? His blue eyes with their faint violet tinge? _No Keira,_ She thought, _don't think about that. Just leave before he ruins your life more. They are a perfect match for each other, both of them ruin the lives of everyone they come in contact with._ Her heart ached, torn between her loyalties to her flock, and the feelings she had for Nathan.

She landed on a rock outcropping from a nearby cliff face and stared out over the vast country side. There was green everywhere, spread in seas or patches, divided by the farm fields, tinged a different shade of green, and the roads that cut through all the beauty like a scar across the face of the earth, just like the wounds she had on her heart. _It hurts doesn't it, world? _She thought, _how people can just tread all over you, unaware of the pain they cause you._

Movement startled Keira out of her thoughts and she looked around to find Ryan had followed her out to the rock face. He landed and then sat beside her, not saying anything. He waited for her to talk first, not wanting to seem intrusive. She continued staring out at the world below, her eyes never leaving the sight. After a while she spoke.

"I don't know what to do," Keira said, "For the first time in a while, I don't know what to do. Go after him, or take care of our family, just leave. I know what I am supposed to do, but what my heart is telling me is something different."

"Forget him, Keira," Ryan replied, "He was never in your life until a few days ago. Why should he make such an impact now? Would you abandon your entire family just to have him?"

"I want to take care of our family," Keira replied, "I want to protect them, be their leader, their mother, but I also want him to be with me, at my side. I just can't help the way I feel."

"Well, as the saying goes," Ryan replied, "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

Keira was shocked to hear the coldness in his voice and began to wonder was it really Nathan that was causing their family to fall apart or was it her? Had she let her emotions get in the way and cloud her judgement? She spread her wings, discarding the shreds that were what was left of her sweater and flew back towards the hospital. One thing she kept thinking about was the way Ryan behaved whenever she mentioned Nathan. He was always open with her, but recently whenever she mentioned Nathan's name, he just shuts up and gives her the cold shoulder. What was with him? She sighed, it was just another complicated part of life, trying to understand the opposite gender. She shook her head as a ridiculous thought raced through her mind and focused on flying. _But what if it were true?_ She thought silently to herself, _what if it were true…?_

_**Chapter 64**_

Fire burnt all around her, within her. Alarms blared around her, sprinklers were trying to put out the fire but the water was turned to steam before it left the pipes. Anger was coursing through her veins, only fuelling the fire wanting to burst out of her. Her Mother, her Father… her brother. She had lost them all, because of this man standing in front of her. The alarms seemed to be growing louder and louder until it was in her head, in her blood. The flames grew dimmer and dimmer until darkness engulfed her, but the alarm continued through the dark, changing from the loud blaring alarm to a quieter, softer beeping. She felt so tired, so exhausted and used up, but that beeping was getting on her nerve.

"Would someone shut that freaking thing up?" Cass asked hoarsely, "It's giving me one major headache and it gets worse the longer I hear that thing."

She felt movement next to hear and then the machine stopped it's beeping. She opened her eyes, but immediately shut them. The harsh glare of the fluorescent light caused her headache to turn into a migraine. She turned her head to the side she felt the movement from and opened her eyes again and saw Dean sitting at the bedside. She looked around the room and saw that they were at a hospital, but she was too tired to recognize the hospital.

"Cass," Dean said softly, looking at her. She looked so fragile and weak lying in the bed, "Cass, you're ok. What happened?"

Fire. The room was filled with fire, heat buckling the metal walls, bodies being burnt to ash by the waves of fire and heat that came from her. The fire was consuming her, trying to forces its way out of her. It was like a beast trying to get out, wanting to destroy everything in its path. Then she felt it explode and all went dark. The last image she saw were the bodies of all those in the building burning at her feet. She turned her head away to hide the tear that fell down her face.

"I should have died," Cass said, "It should have killed me. All that power, that fire. I felt as if I was burning from the inside out, then just nothing. It was as if the fire was gone, as if it no longer hurt me. Instead of fighting the fire, I just accepted it, let it consume me and it no longer hurt."

"What about the birthmark?" Dean asked, "You never said anything about it."

"Birthmark?" Cass questioned, then looked at her wrist where Dean had pointed. There, on her wrist was the picture of a bird, surrounded by flames. "Phoenix," She said to herself, "that explains it a bit better. Powers evolve by our understanding of them, the more we find out about them the stronger they get, but everyone reaches a critical point when their powers must reach another level, or the person is consumed by their power. I think I just found mine. So I've become the phoenix, have I?"

"You seem to know a bit about that," Dean said, "How come?"

"I'm not too sure," Cass replied, "It's like I just understand it, I know what it is deep down. I feel like I can understand it a whole lot better."

"I thought I had lost you," Dean said, turning away from her, "We all did."

Cass watched Dean's eyes, saw the tear he wiped quickly from his face. She placed her hand in his, surprising him. She held it there, not doing anything, just happy to be alive. She realised now, life wasn't something to waste and that we have to take every chance we get. She lifted herself off the bed and moved closer to Dean. He was surprised, but didn't get to say a word as she kissed him on the lips, stopping any protests from leaving his mouth. She broke the kiss and fell back onto the bed, letting sleep take her once again…


	34. Chapter 65 & 66

_**Chapter 65**_

I wandered back to the hospital, dazed and confused. _What the heck is going on?_ I thought, _first off Keira hates my guts and Laura's, then she decides to help Laura and now she's…_ I flashed back to that kiss and shook my head. I still felt guilty about it. I thought something like that might have happened, the atmosphere felt the same as when I first kissed Laura. Yet why didn't I stop it? If anyone has an answer please let me know. I heard the noise of car doors and looked up to see I had already reached the edge of the car park. I made sure my wings were hidden and made my way across the parking area and to the front doors.

"Nathan!" I heard my name shouted and turned towards the direction it had come from. I saw Sierra running down the corridor, holding a vial in her hands that was the colour of blood. Sierra finally reached where I was standing and let out a breath. "I couldn't find you anywhere," She told him, "I wanted to tell you, I think I've got it, the way to save Laura."

"Um… thanks, Sierra," I replied, "Let's see if it'll work now. If you don't mind me asking, why are you helping us?"

"I had someone I cared for," Sierra replied, turning her head away, "I lost him. I don't want anyone else to go through that." She turned her head back to me, "And besides, everyone already has an opinion of Laura. I want to see the person you see in her, the new Laura, not the Keira that the Whitecoats made her."

"Thanks again Sierra," I replied, "I'm sorry to hear what happened though."

"Forget it," Sierra replied, "It was a few years ago. Time to start life anew right?"

"Yeah," I replied, reaching the door to Laura's room, "You remind me a lot of my sister, no matter what I said about her, no matter what happened to her, she always remained cheerful and always had a smart remark ready for people."

Sierra smiled, "Sounds like the little sister I always wanted," She replied, "You lost her didn't you? Everyone seems to lose something. Keira lost her sister, Ryan lost his mother. They killed her while trying to capture him, Derek and Courtney are twins, they lost both their parents. We became their family."

"Just as I taught Laura to feel emotion again," I replied, "And she taught me in some situations, it's best not to feel any at all."

I stood next to Laura's bed, her IV line in my hand. Sierra passed me a syringe and I flinched at seeing the needle, flashbacks bought up from the past, but quickly submerged them and took the syringe. I filled it with the liquid in the vial and injected it into Laura's IV line. The fluid turned red as it flowed into Laura. We watched the monitor, waiting for any signs that it had began. At first nothing, then the heart beats started increasing, Laura started to shake, then tremble. She began to twist from pain as the bacteria invaded her body and began to re-write her DNA, making it healthier, giving her the life she deserved. Laura slowly stopped moving, then was still. I heard a whining noise and turned to the monitor. Laura was flat-lining…

_**Chapter 66**_

"No!" I shouted, "No, I'm not going to let you die, Laura. I won't let you die."

I tilted her head back to open her airway and began to give her CPR, starting compressions on her chest to get her heart beating again, the monitor still whined in the background. Tears began to fall down my face as I continued the compressions and I began to lose hope, there was still no rhythm.

"Laura," I sobbed, "Laura please don't go, please. Laura, I love you, don't leave me." A tear fell onto her cheek and I was pulled away by Dean. I wasn't aware anyone had entered the room. Sierra had raced to find the others while I had performed CPR. I struggled against them, not wanting to be separated from Laura. I closed my hands into fists and began to strike Dean, trying to get loose.

"Nathan," Dean huffed, trying to get me to calm down, "Nathan, there is nothing you can do."

"No," I shouted, "Let me go, I can't let her die. I can't! Let Me Go!"

"There is one thing I can do," Sierra replied, "but it's risky. Keep everyone away from the bed while I try."

Sierra's eyes flashed blue then her body seemed to glow, her features began to change. There was no sounds, just the girl who was changing before their eyes. She placed her hands on Laura and there was a flash. I saw lightening shoot from one hand to the other. A spike on the monitor then flat again. Another jolt, another spike, nothing. Sierra kept at it but there was nothing. She morphed back and turned to face me, sadness on her face. She was about to speak when we heard the first beep, then another and another. We all looked at the monitor. Laura's heart had started again. I rushed to her side and grabber her hand, feeling the pulse beat under my palm. I held her hand up to my tear stained cheek and held it there.

"Laura," I whispered, "Laura, I almost lost you."

The others filed out of the room, seeing that we needed to be left alone. Sierra was about to leave but I turned to face her. "Thank you," I whispered softly, "for everything." She smiled sadly, but didn't say anything as she walked out of the room. I felt Laura move on the bed and sat down next to the bed.

"Nathan," She whispered weakly, "I love you too. I heard you, I heard your shouts and it's what pulled me back."

"Please don't scare me like that again," I whispered to her, placing my forehead against hers, "I nearly died of a heart attack. I thought I had lost you."

"But I'm still here," Laura replied softly, then kissed me lightly on the lips. I stopped the kiss and looked into her eyes and wonder how I had been so lucky to meet her and have her by my side. I brushed her cheek.

"Get some rest," I told her, "You'll need it. I'll be here if you need me."

She closed her eyes and was soon asleep, the monitor showed her vitals as stable and I slid out into the corridor. Everyone crowded around me as soon as I came out, asking how she was, everyone except for Keira.

"She just needs some rest," I replied, "Just let her rest and she'll be fine."

We all left quietly and headed for the cafeteria for food. We met Susan on the way and told her what had happened. She was relieved Laura was alright, but scolded us for going ahead without her supervision. We sat down and ate some food. I didn't eat much, I didn't feel like it. It was about ten minutes later I sensed, sort of just felt Laura needed me. I left the table without a reason and raced back to the room. The door was open, hanging off one hinge, the other completely gone. I heard a gunshot from in the room and raced in to find a shadows figure standing in the room, gun pointing at Laura.

Laura has a shield of light around her and I saw the bullet fall to the floor, the casing at the feet of the shadowed figure. As soon as the figure saw me, they raised the gun to fire at me, but I was already there, gun formed in my hand. I aimed the gun and fired, but the figure vanished, just disappeared. I approached Laura's side and caught her before she fell, laying her back on the bed, unconscious, but safe. I walked to the place where the figure stood and found a marking on the floor and a note. All it said was _destroy the light, save the one of darkness.._ That was all. I puzzled at this as the others appeared, dumbfounded by the damage to the room. I filled them in on what had just happened and we all settled down together in the room for the night, two people kept on watch at all times. I slept by Laura's side all night, pondering the meaning of the message…


	35. Epilogue

_**Authors Note:** Ok people, here is the Epilogue for Dangerous Choice. I will me doing a sequel if you wish, I have already got other people asking me for one on the Maximum Ride site where I have also posted this. I would also appreciate comments on my other stories. Thanks for reading this everyone!_

* * *

_**Epilogue**_

_It was three days before Laura was strong enough to stay awake for the normal amount of hours before getting tired, another two days before she was allowed to walk around. It seemed her close encounter with death hadn't left any side effects. I can definitely tell you her strength recovered quickly; my cheek is still recovering from the slap she gave me when I told her Keira kissed me. She was upset I let it happened, even though I tried to explain it was a misunderstanding. She didn't seem to believe me until she saw Ryan and Keira making out in the garden courtyard below the bedroom window. She forgave me afterwards, although I honestly don't know why I had to be hit. I suppose I deserved it though, I did nothing to stop it from happening. _

_The message left behind that day still puzzled me. None of us seemed to understand what was meant by that, but it had something to do with Laura's attempted assassination and me. But what it had to do with me, I wasn't too sure myself._ _I've just started writing in a journal. We decided to write everything down, let the world know what was going on behind their backs, what we've had to go through to keep us together, how many times we've come close to death and who died because of all this. I wanted the world to know what had really happened to my family and I wanted the rest of the world to know : we are the forgotten, we are the lost, those people have had disappear from their lives, those that had been forgotten because it is too hard to remember them. _

I signed it Dark, my codename. We all chose one based on our powers. Cass was Phoenix , Dan was Ghost. Keira called herself Mirage, Ryan was Magnus, Sierra was Reformer and the twins decided to call themselves Alpha and Beta. Derek was Alpha, as he was the oldest and Courtney was Beta. It was better using names like that, then people couldn't trace us.

"You don't belong with her," A voice whispered from the shadows, "Darkness cannot exist with the light, it thrives in the absence of it."

"But without light," I replied back, "Darkness cannot take on a form, a shadow or a life of its own. Darkness and light are required by the other to keep them in balance. Now what do you want with us?"

"Not with them," The voice whispered back, "just you. The Clans are after each of you, the rules don't allow renegades like you to roam free. Each will be claimed by a clan according to their power, or annihilated by those clan's opponents. It's just the way life is for us now. Fighting to remain hidden, claiming territory to keep our clans safe and going to war over the territory."

"Sounds like _they_ have you right where they want you," I replied, "killing each other off just to keep you under control. I'd rather stay with these guys and make a difference, destroying those labs, like the ones that made us what we are now. I love Laura, I don't care if she's with the light or not. You can't make me go."

"No," The voice replied, "I can't. But the Clan council can and will. It's best to go without a fight. Unless you want their lives in danger from it?"

"So you want me to abandon the ones I care for and join your little clan?" I replied, "Forget it. I'll protect them from your wars and from everyone who tries to come and claim them. We are a family and you can just get lost."

"We'll see about that," the voice replied, "have your fun and games for a while. But soon you'll join our clan. People always join the clans. It's the only way to survive."

I didn't bother replying. I formed the gun from the shadows and fired it into the darkness from where I heard the voice coming from. There was some faint noise, as if at the end of a phone line, then silence. I had gotten rid of them for the time being. I walked over to where the others were sitting or standing in the garden outside and told them what I had learned, about the clans, the wars and what was coming. Keira had never heard of them before. Aaron had heard whispers from others minds, but never knew if they were true or not. The flocks decided to stay together and watch each others backs. We decided we were going to fight the system, all of us… together.

© Jamie Ross


End file.
